Action Anime Brawl
by comicfan616
Summary: Pokemon! Yu-Gi-Oh! Dinosaur King! MegaMan NTWarrior! Naruto! Sonic X! Characters from all six shows have been summoned to fight the ultimate battle. Basic knowledge of shows is recommended. UPDATES VERY, VERY INFREQUENT! Sorry.
1. P1 Set Up

**Hey, folks. Welcome to the first prologue of my very first fic. Some notes:**

**Summary: Characters from six different animes (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dinosaur King, Megaman NTWarrior, Naruto, and Sonic X), have been summoned to fight the ultimate battle. But first, they have to partake in a test...**

**Disclaimer: I own none of these animes. If I did, Pokemon would be closer to the games, Yu-Gi-Oh! would be family-friendly, Dinosaur King would have more episodes, Megaman would have a few name changes, Sonic X would be cooler, and Naruto probably wouldn't exist.**

**Warning: Possible OOC (I don't watch all these animes, so I don't know what all the characters are like) and other discrepancies.**

**Dedicated to my brother, whose knowledge in these shows has been helpful to me.**

**So, without ado...**

**Action Anime Brawl**

**Prologue 1–Set Up**

Ash, Pikachu, Brock, and Dawn walked down the pathway that led to the fabled Mt. Moon. Ash was holding the letter he had received from his rival and friend Gary a few days ago.

Ash,

Meet me at the Clefairy Cave at Mount Moon on Wednesday at 8:00 pm. There's something I want to show you involving my research.

~Gary

"I wonder what Gary's doing here?" Dawn wondered.

"Well, if it involves the Clefairy Cave," Brock answered, "I bet it has something to do with the Moon Stone."

"Could be," Ash remarked. "Gary does spend his time researching ancient Pokémon. What better place than Mt. Moon for the mysterious and unusual?" "Pikachu," Pikachu nodded in affirmative.

Soon, the cave was in sight. Ash remembered it as the cave where various Clefairy and Clefable pray, in the form of dancing, to the core of the original Moon Stone. It was also where a scientist named Seymour lived to better study the stone and the Pokémon who inhabited Mt. Moon.

The three friends traveled to the final chamber, where the Moon Stone was and several Clefairy were doing their usual dancing. Off to one side, Ash saw Gary talking to…

"May, Misty!" Ash called to his friends. "Pikachu pi!" All three of them turned around and saw the trio that just walked in. They all ran to the front of the Moon Stone. Although Ash was happy to see his friends, there was a look on all three faces that suggested this reunion was about to be ruined.

"Ash," Gary said, "I suppose you got some kind of letter too, huh?"

"Yeah," Ash said, and showed Gary the letter that he wrote.

"I hate to tell you this Ash," Gary said, "but I didn't send this."

Dawn gasped. "What do you mean you didn't?"

"I got a letter from these two here," he explained, pointing at May and Misty, "saying they saw something in this cave that I should take a look at."

Then it was May's turn to speak. "Meanwhile, we got letters from you, Ash, saying you wanted a little get-together."

"I thought it was strange that you'd pick this place," Misty spoke up. "That why I started getting suspicious."

"It was Misty's suspicions that got me thinking," Gary concluded. "I think we're being set up."

"By who?" Brock asked. As they were trying to figure it out, they heard something overhead, and a small rock fell down the side of the wall. The Clefairy stopped dancing.

"Who's up there?" Gary asked.

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?"

"It speaks to me loud and clear."

"On the wind." "Past the stars." "In your ear."

No one needed to listen to the rest. A lousy introductory poem that made no sense could only belong to Team Rocket. They could even see their balloon coming in from the skylight. "Why don't they come up with something good for once?" Ash asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, like about what losers they are," Misty added. "Pika."

"Jessie." James." "Meowth, that's a name."

"Putting the do-gooders in their place." "We're Team Rocket." "In your face!"

"So, it was you three who set us up!" Brock said. Many of the others were already stating agreements, saying they should've guessed that from the start.

"Why would we need to set you up?" Jessie asked as they hopped from the balloon to the Moon Stone. "Especially when you're all going to be here anyway?"

"Wait a minute," Dawn said. "Did you get a tip saying we would be here?"

"Yeah, so what if we did?" Meowth said.

"I knew it," Dawn said to the rest. "They're in the same boat as us." She turned to Team Rocket. "You guys have been set up, too."

Just then, the Moon Stone started to glow. Several of the Clefairy started bolting from the room. Whatever was happening wasn't good.

Suddenly the ground began to shake. May yelled out to everyone, "Hey, let's take a tip from the Clefairy and get out!" Before they could, however, a large rock fell in front of the tunnel, sealing the exit. Another rock fell and destroyed Team Rocket's balloon, cutting off escape from the air.

"Great," Ash said, "now what?" "Pikachu!" Pikachu pointed to the glowing Moon Stone, which started shining brighter and brighter, until everyone in the chamber was bathed in a white light. When it cleared, only the few Clefairy who didn't make it out remained, but the Trainers and their Pokémon were gone.

**I'll see if I can't load the other six prologues. See you then!**


	2. P2 Time Warp

**Here's the second prologue, featuring Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Disclaimer-I own nothing.**

**Prologue 2-Time Warp**

"Go, Yugi," Joey shouted. "Show that Kaiba who's boss."

The duel was going very smoothly. Kaiba had challenged Yugi to show him that he was destined to be the greatest duelist who ever lived. So far, Kaiba was down to 700 life points, while Yugi was at 1300. But things were looking good for Kaiba, as he had just played his infamous Blue Eyes White Dragon.

"Blue Eyes, attack his Dark Magician with White Lightning!" Mystic lightning bolts penetrated Yugi's Dark Magician, destroying him, leaving Yugi with 800 life points. Now only his Dark Magician Girl was left, and at 2300 attack points against 3000, the odds were stacked against him.

"Go, Seto!" Mokuba cheered. "Beat that Yugi to a pulp!"

"Your turn, Yugi," Kaiba said tauntingly. Yugi drew his card, half hoping for a miracle. When he saw the card's image, he smiled. It was a long shot, but it might allow him to beat Kaiba.

"I summon Time Wizard!" A clocklike creature with a wand to match its appearance soon appeared on the battlefield.

Tristan looked confused. "Time Wizard? I thought that was your card, Joey?"

"It is, but I let Yugi borrow it," Joey explained. "With Kaiba as the opponent, it never hurts to have a backup plan."

"I don't know," Mai said with concern. "Time Wizard's a pretty risky card."

"In situations like this," Tea interjected, "sometimes it's worth the risk."

"I trust you know what this means, Kaiba?" Yugi taunted.

"Of course," Kaiba said. "You're a bigger fool than I thought: using a card that belongs to that weakling, Wheeler."

Joey started to become very tense. "Hey, Yugi, tear him to shreds, will ya'?"

"Relax, Joey," Yugi said. "I call upon Time Wizard's ability: Time Roulette!" The dial on Time Wizard's wand started to spin around. Everyone waited for the final outcome: would Kaiba lose his Blue Eyes, or Yugi his Dark Magician Girl? After what seemed like a long time, the dial finally stopped. The time warp appeared over…

"My Blue Eyes!" Kaiba shouted. He watched helplessly as the mighty dragon was lifted into the warp. But as it disappeared, something very unexpected happened.

Five streaks of light shot out of the time warp. After flying around the battlefield, they landed on the ground and disappeared. In their place were five people, four males and one female, all of them about the same age as the duelists. Two of them carried Duel Disks that were more curved than what Yugi and his friends were used to seeing.

"Hey, Jaden," the one with big glasses asked, "where are we?"

"Hard to say, Syrus," answered his companion. "It looks like we got teleported here after we were sucked into that glowing circle."

"I think we all got that, you idiot," said a dark haired male in a rude tone. "What we want to know is, 'Where are we?'"

"Perhaps," observed the male in the yellow jacket, as he pointed at Time Wizard, "that provides a logical explanation, Chazz. I believe it's safe to say we were pulled in by its time warp powers."

The female looked up at Time Wizard, then turned to face its controller. "Uh, guys?" she said.

"What is it, Alexis?" asked the one called Jaden.

"I think that's Yugi Mutou!" Alexis said. The strangers turned to look at Yugi, while everyone else's eyes were on the newcomers.

"Who are those guys?" Tristan asked. "And why do they treat Yugi like a celebrity?" But he didn't expect an answer for either question.

"Are you kidding?" Jaden asked surprisingly. "Yugi is probably the greatest duelist of all time, and the main reason that I'm as good a duelist as I am."

Kaiba became interested and, forgetting the duel for just a moment, asked, "Tell me. Is the name 'Seto Kaiba' also a big name where you come from?"

"He's the one who founded the Duel Academy we go to," Chazz answered.

Mokuba looked confused. "Seto, what are they talking about?"

"I can't say I know, Mokuba," Kaiba answered. "But if I had to guess, I would say that these people come from a possible future. That Time Wizard's warp gate must've ripped through the fabric of space and time and brought them to us."

"But how?" Joey said, partly thinking out loud. "Time Wizard is just a hologram. Even I know that holograms don't affect the real world."

Kaiba started to look annoyed. "As interesting as this is, can we please get back to the duel? We'll deal with these five after."

"Wait, Seto," Mokuba said. "The time warp is still up there." Sure enough, the time warp that brought the five newcomers was still hovering above the battlefield, and getting bigger by the second.

"Don't worry," said Kaiba calmly. "As soon as the duel's over, the loss of the stadium's power will get rid of it. Now, Yugi, are you going to attack or not?"

Yugi felt like he just woke up from a bizarre dream. He quickly pushed the interruption out of his head. "All right, Kaiba," he said, "if you want to lose that badly, my Dark Magician Girl will attack you directly with Dark Burning!" Dark Magician Girl's wand lit up and fired a powerful blast aimed at Kaiba.

"I activate my face-down trap card: Negate Attack!" A mystic warp appeared in front of Kaiba and absorbed the attack. However, the blast, after being absorbed, shot back up to the time warp. The portal sucked in the attack and grew at a rate faster than what it was previously. A bright light came out of the portal.

"What's going on, Bastion?" Syrus asked the yellow jacket male.

"You asked me that the last time this happened. I don't believe you need the answer this time," he said. The light soon engulfed the entire battlefield and surrounding area. Seconds later it lifted. The time warp, as well as everything else on the battlefield, had disappeared as well.

Tea sighed, "Whew, that close. Is everyone all right?" She heard no answer. She looked to both sides of her and saw that Joey and Mai were gone. Only Tristan was left, struggling to get up. Yugi wasn't on his podium either. Soon she heard something from the other end. "Seto?"

Tea ran over to Mokuba, who looked worried. She looked at Kaiba's podium and saw no one. "Where's Seto?" Mokuba asked her, though he knew this was a lost cause.

They weren't the only one's missing. Tea looked over to where the mysterious strangers were and saw that they had vanished too.

"I wish I knew, Mokuba," she said. "I wish I knew."

**Up next, Dinosaur King.**


	3. P3 False Alarm

**Time to go Jurassic!**

**Disclaimer-Me no own this.**

**Prologue 3-False Alarm**

Things around the Taylor house were pretty much business as usual. Chomp was chowing down on the dog food in ten seconds flat, Ace was refusing to get in the tub due to his hydrophobia, both were making a mess and rattling their owners' sanity, and to top it off, Zoe was trying to teach Paris to sing again. It was a good thing Aki was out of the house for the week; she wouldn't be able to take all this for a minute.

Max was on the verge of getting a headache; any more of Paris' screeching and his head would split. "Hey, Rex," he said, "how about we go out for a stroll or something, at least to get us out of the house."

"I hear you," sighed Rex, who had entered the room dripping wet. Both of them had walked out the door and were almost out of the walkway when they heard a beeping noise. They took out their Dino Holders and looked at the screen. Inside, Zoe also heard beeping and did the same. The sound was coming from the holder, and a red dot was flashing on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Zoe joined her friends and they were off to the D-Lab.

At Zeta Point, Ursula, Zander, and Ed were enjoying a little R&R by playing some tennis. Ursula was winning 40-love, but only because she threatened Zander to score points in her favor or get mashed by Terry. Ed was starting to suspect something, but got cut off whenever he tried to protest.

Ursula was about to serve the ball for the win, yelling, "Service!" Suddenly she heard an unpleasant voice. "Ursula! Zander! Ed!" The ball knocked Ursula on the head, leaving a small bump where it landed. "All right, who did that?" she demanded. She looked around and saw Dr. Z with an angry look on his face.

"What do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

"Well, sir," Ursula said, almost trembling, "there haven't been any dino-sightings for weeks, so we thought…"

"So you mean to tell me that there's another dinosaur out there, and you just want to play some meaningless game?" Z said accusingly, holding up an Alpha Scanner with the dinosaur's location marked.

"Well," Zander pleaded, "we didn't know about…"

"Save me your excuses and go get that dinosaur!" Z yelled. After a quick "Aye-aye, sir," all three ran to the Alpha Jet. "Boy," Z said quietly, "those three really know how to raise a guy's blood pressure."

Max, Rex, Zoe, and their dinosaurs had just arrived at Dr. Taylor's lab, where Reese was already at the computer, pulling up a world map.

"Reese," Max said, "where's the dinosaur at?"

After a quick check, Reese declared, "The island of Bermuda, located approximately 660 miles at the closest to the North American continent."

Dr. Taylor thought for a second and said, "I'd be careful if I were you, kids. Bermuda makes the northernmost tip of the infamous Bermuda Triangle, an area where mysterious disappearances have been reported for many years."

"You're not actually saying you believe that stuff, are you Doctor?" Reese asked.

"Hey, we're sending these three to get a creature that hasn't been seen for who knows how long. I'm just about ready to believe in Bigfoot," Dr. Taylor retorted.

"That's good," Reese said, "seeing as he's right behind you." Dr. Taylor quickly jumped under Reese's desk in an attempt to hide.

"Don't worry, Dad," Max said. "We'll be back with the dinosaur before you can say 'Mesozoic era.'" With that, the three activated the teleportation link and they were gone.

"You know, Reese, you didn't have to do that," Dr. Taylor complained.

"To be perfectly honest, Doctor," Reese confessed, "I couldn't resist."

The three appeared in a cove on the coast of the island. Rex was the first to speak. "Let's split up and look for clues as to where the dinosaur may be. And let's do it quick."

"What's the matter, Rex?" Max teased creepily. "Are you scared of Triangle's power? Oooooooooh!"

"Like your dad said, Max," Rex replied. "We do some pretty unbelievable stuff, so I think we ought to keep an open mind."

A while passed and no trace of a dinosaur was found. Suddenly, a large shadow could be seen rolling across the cove. They all looked up to see a large jet.

Zoe sighed, "It's probably the old lady again."

Meanwhile, up above, Ursula managed to seize control of the jet from Zander. "I heard that!" she said. "There are only three people who call me that, and they must be here!"

"Hey, Ursula," Ed shouted, "you keep this up and we'll go down." Sure enough, the jet crash-landed onto the cove, shoved between two large rocks. All three Alpha Gang members sprawled out of the jet in a heap. "See," Ed complained, "I told you."

"Oh, shut your mouth, Ed," Ursula snapped.

"But one good thing did happen from all this," Zander said. "Those kids are right there."

Both the D-Team and Alpha Gang took a battle stance and pulled out their holders and scanners. "So, kids, I'll make you a deal," Ursula taunted. "Tell us where the dinosaur is and we won't have to hurt you… much."

"Don't bet on it, old lady," Max said. He signaled to Chomp and pulled out his card. He prepared to slash the card across the Dino Holder. "Dinoooo…"

"Max hold up!" Rex stopped him short.

"What'd you do that for?" Max asked angrily.

"Look at this," Rex replied. He held up his Dino Holder with the map shown the screen. Except for the island they were standing on, it was totally blank: no dinosaur in sight. "There was no dinosaur here," Rex said.

Ursula took a quick look at her Alpha Scanner. The image on the map was the same as what was on Rex's. "Guys, I think the brat's right," she said.

"Is it possible that it was just a false alarm?" Zander thought out loud.

"No, I don't think so," Ursula said. "If it was, then why did both team's scanners say to come here?"

Suddenly, the wind started to pick up. It went from a light breeze to gale force in almost five seconds. Zoe and Rex were clutching to their dinosaurs as tight as they could. A bright light shone all around the cove. Max couldn't help asking, "Do you think we've solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle?"

"I sure hope not," Rex said.

Back at the lab, Reese made a quick check on her computer. The blip announcing the dinosaur's presence was gone. "Dr. Taylor, I think you better look at this," she called out.

Dr. Taylor took one look at the map and told Reese to run a quick check for the kids. Reese tried to open the communication links on the Dino Holders. "Sir," she said with concern, "I can't find them anywhere."

**Then where did all they go? We'll worry about that later, because up next, MegaMan's got issues of his own.**


	4. P4 Dimension Tension

**Jack-in and power up!**

**Disclaimer-I don't own these guys, just the situation.**

**Prologue 4-Dimension Tension**

Lan, Maylu, and Rush were on their way to SciLab to have their PETs checked out. After their last run in with one of Duo's Asteroid Navis, they had to run a diagnostics test, simply to make sure there weren't any problems. To a Net Saver, a PET is the most important weapon in one's arsenal.

They went over to Dr. Hikari's lab where they saw Chaud's NetNavi ProtoMan going through a systems check program. Chaud was standing next to Dr. Hikari himself as he was running the final analysis.

"Hey, Chaud," Lan called over to his friend and rival.

Chaud turned to face him in his calm and collected state. "Lan, I should've guessed you'd be here," he said.

"You know me," Lan said in a boasting manner, "always getting ready for action. How's ProtoMan looking?"

"We'll know soon enough," Chaud answered.

"Actually," Dr. Hikari said, "He's looking just fine." He took Chaud's PET out of the computer port and handed it to Chaud. "Looks like you're all set." He turned to Lan and Maylu. "So, whose PET needs checked first?"

Maylu spoke up. "Well, I was kinda hoping you'd check mine, Dr. Hikari. Roll suffered some pretty heavy damage from one of SavageMan's claws." Dr. Hikari took Maylu's PET and placed in the port where Chaud's was.

"Lan, there's no room on this for a second PET," he told his son. "Would you mind waiting for a few minutes while I check the systems on this one?"

"No problem, Dad," Lan said. "Besides, I was thinking about hitting one of the snack machines; I haven't had lunch yet."

"Nah, he hasn't had lunch," came a voice from Lan's PET. "He just downed ten granola bars about ten minutes ago."

Lan suddenly jerked. "MegaMan, I thought we talked about that."

MegaMan simply said, "Nope, you talked, I ignored."

"I have to get going," Chaud said, not wanting to listen to this. "BlazeQuest Games officials are supposed to be in an important meeting and I'm going to be late as it is." With that, Chaud started walking out of the room. He didn't go very far though, because suddenly the walls, ceiling, and floor took on a rainbow-like hue.

"What's happening?" Lan asked. "Is this a dimensional area?" Suddenly there was a beeping sound. It was the main computer with an incoming communication.

A scientist's face came up on the screen. "Dr. Hikari, the dimensional area generators have suddenly activated and have surrounded SciLab."

"What?" Dr. Hikari said in astonishment. "How is that possible?"

"There's more," said the scientist. "Apparently the dimensional area is disappearing bit by bit. And with each bit, it takes part of SciLab with it. To make a long story short, Doctor, SciLab is disappearing!"

Hikari thought for a second. "What about the people inside the building? Will it affect them too?"

"It's hard to say," the scientist said sadly, "but I bet it will."

"Try to get as many people out of the building as you can by any way necessary," Hikari commanded. With that, he cut the transmission.

Lan didn't like the idea of SciLab being destroyed; that had happened once before and it took a long time to rebuild, and that was when they still had part of the building intact. "Dad, wait," he said. When Hikari looked in his direction, Lan continued. "What if we destroy the generators? That might stop them."

Hikari stood there in disbelief. "Are you crazy, Lan? It will take days to rebuild them, days that Duo might use against us."

"No wait, Dr. Hikari," Chaud said in his calm voice. "Lan has a point. If we don't stop this now, SciLab is done for. Besides, I have an idea. If we can shut down the core generator from inside the system, the whole thing might shut down."

Hikari still didn't like the idea of tampering with the generators, but he had to admit; damaged generators in a damaged SciLab is a lot better than perfect generators with no SciLab. "All right, the core generator is on the top floor. It's the biggest one there. If you log MegaMan into it, he should shut it down. Chaud, you're going to be Lan's backup. Whoever is doing this will probably send an army of viruses, and your PET is the only one fully checked out and okayed; hence, you're the only one who can cross fuse safely. I have to stay here and finish Roll's check up; I don't want to risk her getting damaged now that she's in sleep mode."

"Leaving her in there while SciLab's disappearing can't be good for her health either," MegaMan said half-jokingly.

"MegaMan, cut the quips and let's go already," Lan said. With that, he and Chaud ran to the top floor.

Along the way, the two met up with many dangerous and powerful viruses, all blocking the nearest stairway. "Lan, try to find another way up!" Chaud yelled. "I'll cover for you." Lan ran down the hall as he heard Chaud cross fusing. He saw a stairway that wasn't being blocked and ran up it. All floors leading to the top were empty. Soon they found the core generator.

"Ready, MegaMan?" Lan asked.

"Born ready," the NetNavi confirmed.

"Jack-in, MegaMan, power up!" Lan yelled. Soon, MegaMan vanished from the PET and reappeared inside the generator's systems. As he suspected, viruses were roaming the system. After a quick Mega Buster barrage, he ran up to the dimension core. One charge shot would've been enough to take it out. But just as he was getting ready to fire the shot, he heard something: a voice of some kind.

"You have fought valiantly, young warriors," it said.

MegaMan started to get nervous. "Lan, did you hear that?" After Lan gave the affirmative, MegaMan yelled, "Who are you? Is that you, Duo?" There was a short pause.

"No, but you will learn soon enough," the voice answered. "As I have said, you fight bravely to protect this place, all of you. Alas, it is futile. You cannot hope to stop it, for this must be done." MegaMan didn't know what to do, except fire his lethal shot at the core. However, the shot bounced off the core and blasted MegaMan back several yards. "It is all right," the voice spoke again. "All will be explained in time." For both the human world and the cyber world, at that moment, everything went white

Outside the dimensional area, those who managed to make it out of the building stood aghast as they saw the entire SciLab facility disappear, with no survivors left in sight.

**Who was that weird voice? Whatever, next time, Naruto.**


	5. P5 Explosion of Chakra

**Time for the next prologue.**

**Disclaimer-I don't even _want_ to own this one.**

**Prologue 5-Explosion of Chakra**

Naruto and Sasuke were in the forest doing a little sparring. Naruto, like always, was determined to win, but Sasuke wasn't making it easy for him. Observing the two was their friend Sakura and their sensei Kakashi, who was reading his favorite book, _Make-Out Paradise_.

Watching from the sidelines, unbeknownst to the others, were Ino on one end and Rock Lee on the other. Both of them were spying on the two combatants, hoping to pick up some valuable information on how to fight them should the need ever arise.

Of course, Ino wasn't planning on fighting with Sasuke anytime soon. In fact, if anything, she was hoping to avoid a direct conflict with him, and was partly observing the battle to watch Sasuke beat Naruto to a pulp.

Rock, on the other hand, was studying the opponents for a different reason. Being unable to perform even basic jutsu, he was hoping to learn how to fight against opponents who do use jutsu. So far, neither combatant had used a move that would help him learn more, but he was patient.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had fought each other to a standstill. Suddenly, Naruto made a gesture with his hands. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he shouted. Immediately, more than twenty more Narutos showed up seemingly out of nowhere. "What now, Sasuke?" they all taunted.

"Truth to tell, I was kind of expecting you to do that," he said, unworried. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai.

Sakura just watched in amazement. "How does Sasuke hope to fight Shadow Clone Jutsu with a single kunai?" she thought out loud.

Kakashi looked up from his copy of _Make-Out Paradise._ "I think he intends to take out the clones and rattle Naruto's psyche, distracting him long enough for him to land the final blow."

"Big deal," Sakura said uninterestingly, "give me something shiny and I can do the same thing. But this is a kunai. At best it might take out a few clones in one throw."

"Wow, Sasuke," Naruto said, "I knew you were confident, but I didn't think you were stupid."

"Well, confidence and stupidity are mistaken for each other on numerous occasions," Sasuke returned. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" At this, all the Narutos jerked. "But with me, it's a different story." Sasuke took a throwing stance.

As Ino watched, she thought, _Go, Sasuke, show that fool what you can do._

Rock, as he observed from the other side, thought, _This should make all my patience worthwhile._

Sasuke turned the knife in his hand so that his thumb held the handle to his palm, with the blade at the edge of his fingertips. Suddenly, his hand lit up and began to crackle with electricity. Naruto knew what was going on. "The Chidori?" he said in astonishment. The knife became surrounded in a small field of lightning. Just as Sasuke was about to throw the knife, all the Narutos charged at him, getting ready to strike. But it was too late, as Sasuke threw the knife at one end of the crowd coming at him.

The resulting hits created massive explosions as the knife hit each clone, excluding the real Naruto, who had ducked the minute he saw it coming. He turned to see his shadow clones being struck by the knife as it flew. It was turning, almost as though Sasuke was controlling mentally.

However, the explosions soon became one giant explosion, that was growing bigger by the second. Soon, the blast had engulfed both Ino and Rock as well. "Sensei, what's going on?" Sakura asked Kakashi.

"Something bigger than even a byakugan can perceive," he simply said. Soon the explosion had lifted, but the combatants nor their spectators could be seen. All that was left was an open copy of _Make-Out Paradise,_ with its pages face-down on the ground, laying there like a discarded object.

**If Kakashi is still alive, he's not going to like the fact that he has nothing to read. Next, Sonic X.**


	6. P6 Chaos Uncontrolled

**_Gotta go faster, faster, fasterfasterfaster... _Sorry, it's really a good theme song.**

**Disclaimer-I don't own this.**

**Prologue 6-Chaos Uncontrolled**

Sonic and his friends charged into Eggman's new, temporary fortress. An army of robots was waiting for them, but they were no match for Sonic's fast and furious movements. They were about to enter a large door.

"Hey Tails," Sonic said into the communicator in his ear. "I think we may have found it. Can you verify it?" He activated the speaker function to allow everyone to hear.

"The energy readings coming from that room are huge," Tails said in amazement. "That's definitely where Eggman and his new, so-called doomsday machine are."

"What does this 'doomsday machine' do anyway?" Amy asked.

"We're not too sure yet," Tails answered. "All we know is that it has something to do with the Chaos Emerald he currently has. I think it must be used to power the device."

"So," Rouge concluded, "I suppose our mission is to steal the Emerald?"

"And destroy the machine; don't lose sight of that, Rouge, that's our main priority," Sonic scolded.

"Funny. I never thought you cared much about priority, Sonic" said Rouge.

"Whatever, let's just go in there and beat that egg, sunny-side up," Knuckles said, curling his fist in his hand.

"Easy, Knuckles," Sonic said. "There'll be plenty of time for that later. Let's take out the machine first, then you can do what you want with Eggman."

Knuckles stood in front of the door. "It would be awfully rude to enter without knocking first." With one punch, he knocked the 6" thick door off its hinges. Inside was Eggman himself, standing next to a machine that looked like an egg. It was about half as tall as he was. On top of it was a small platform, no doubt to hold the Chaos Emerald.

"Sonic," he said with glee in his voice, "I was starting to think you wouldn't show up." He motioned to his machine. "Allow me to introduce… the Chaos Egg!" He pulled out the Chaos Emerald out of his pocket. "With this magnificent gem, I will initiate Chaos Control, ultimately destroying you and your friends! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

Sonic simply looked at his age-old nemesis. "Something tells me you've run out of good ideas, Eggman (as if you had any). You can't do Chaos Control unless you have all seven emeralds."

"You forget, you little blue rat, you're dealing with a genius," Eggman said confidently. "And this time, it's _two_ generations of geniuses you're dealing with. You see, as you may already know, my grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, created Shadow the Hedgehog, a being who could initiate Chaos Control with but a single emerald. Using his notes, I have created a device that will duplicate this effect," he said, patting his machine.

"That's where you're wrong, old man," came a voice. Suddenly there was a crash from above. Coming from that direction was a black streak which landed in between the two factions. The figure lifted himself up and revealed himself to be…

"Shadow!" everyone cried out.

"Shadow, what a coincidence," Sonic said to his one-time enemy. "We were just talking about you."

"I know. I'm just here to take out the garbage, namely the fat guy," he said calmly. He turned to face Eggman. "You never learn, do you?" he said to him. "You should know by now that Chaos Control could destroy everything and everyone around you, including yourself. Besides, someone like you could never control such a power."

"Nice try, Shadow," Eggman said, confidently, "but I have made certain that I will survive any, um, abnormalities that might occur. But as for you lot, I'm not so sure." He took his emerald and put it on the stand of the Chaos Egg. The machine began to charge with power and the emerald started to glow.

Sonic charged at the machine, but was suddenly blasted backwards by an invisible force. "Ha!" Eggman laughed. "Did you really think I would make it that easy? Once the emerald is inserted, it is surrounded by a force field. You'll never break into it!"

Sonic started to get mad now, but there was nothing he could do about it. "We're going to have to retreat for now. Rouge, take Amy and Knuckles and fly out of here." Sonic and Shadow tried to run, but for some reason they were slowing down. Sonic tried to get his legs to move faster, but he was still slower than a turtle. He looked up and saw Rouge having the same problem. "What's going on?" he asked. "I've changed from the fastest to the slowest in two seconds flat. I bet even Eggman's faster than me _without_ his machines."

"It must be that machine's Chaos Control powers," Shadow said. "It's supposed to be a mechanical replica of me, so it must have my time altering powers as well." They could all hear Eggman laughing as the blast of Chaos Control overtook them.

Soon the blast was gone. Eggman was a little shaken but none the worse for wear. He looked over to where Sonic and his friends were last seen before the blast. They were nowhere to be found.

"Yes!" he shouted. "I've finally done it! I've destroyed Sonic!" He laughed heartily, enjoying his triumph, until he heard something.

"You're wrong, Ivo Robotnik," said a voice, a voice like he'd never heard before.

Eggman flinched. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Show yourself!"

"You will not win, Robotnik," the voice continued. "I have merely 'borrowed' Sonic. I assure you he will be back."

"Is there any chance you can just leave him where he is now? Please?" Eggman said, starting to crack.

"Know this, Robotnik; you will fail," the voice said with a sense of certainty. "You would have failed had I not intervened, but this must be done. Otherwise, your world and all others will fall in a way that you would find horrible."

**Something big is happening, but what? What happened to everyone? Why? These questions and more in the final prologue.**


	7. P7 Let the Brawl Begin

**The big moment you've all been waiting for... _(cue fanfare)_**

**Disclaimer-If I did own these shows, this whole thing would be a movie.**

**Prologue 7-Let the Brawl Begin**

Ash found himself lying face down on a forest floor. _Must've blacked out for a while,_ he thought to himself. He got up and tried to remember what happened. _Oh, yeah, I was in the cave when the Moon Stone did something weird. That flash must've transported me and the others here._ Suddenly, he remembered that the others had the same experience he did. "Pikachu! Brock! Dawn! Misty! May! Gary!" he called out.

Just then, he heard, "Pika pi!" Ash ran in the direction of the Pikachu's voice. Seconds later, he found Pikachu and everyone else. Pikachu looked fine, but the others were still unconscious.

"Pikachu, try a Thundershock and wake them up," Ash said. Pikachu's cheeks started to light up. "Pika-chuuuuuu!" Everyone suddenly received a large jolt. The scream coming from all five trainers was both loud and somewhat comical.

Misty was the first to react. "Ash, what did you do that for?"

"Hey, it got you up didn't it?" Ash returned.

"Could you at least find a way to do that without making me look like a freak?" Dawn said. Everyone turned to her and saw her usual electric-induced hair. "I get enough of this from Pachirisu," she said. She grabbed Piplup's Poké Ball and said, "I'll be right back," before heading into the forest.

Misty asked, "Where's she going?"

"Knowing her, she's probably going to use Piplup's Bubblebeam to fix that hair," Brock answered. "I think it's best that we leave her alone until she comes back."

"Not to change the subject, guys," Gary said, "but shouldn't we try to figure out what happened?"

"Last I remember," May recalled, "we were in that cave and the Moon Stone started glowing." Everyone tried to come up with an explanation, but a rustling in the bushes surprised them.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash said. "Pika-chuuuuuu!" The bolt went to the bushes and forced Team Rocket out of hiding.

"Hey, twerp, what's the big idea?" Jessie said angrily.

"You tell me," Ash said, glaring at them.

"If this is about what happened at Mt. Moon," James said, "we told the truth; all we knew was that you would be there." Pikachu started saying something.

"What's he saying?" Jessie asked Meowth.

"He's saying that although he wants to zap us to kingdom come…" Pikachu continued… "For some strange reason he actually believes us."

"You really think so, Pikachu?" Ash asked him. Pikachu nodded.

Just then, Dawn came back, with her hair fixed, and rejoined the group. Everyone had quickly filled her in on what happened after she left. It was around that time when they all heard a voice.

Yugi woke up to find his friends all unconscious. He looked down and realized his other self was no longer in control. He turned to Joey and attempted to wake him up.

"Come on Joey," he said, shaking his friend, "wake up." A few seconds later, Joey regained consciousness, and Yugi's talking woke up everybody else as well, including the strangers from the duel. Upon being reminded of the duel, Yugi quickly checked for his deck. When he confirmed he still had it, he checked to make sure all of his cards were there, which they were, including Joey's Time Wizard.

Yugi turned to look at Kaiba, who was now eyeing the strangers. Suddenly, Kaiba ran over to the one called Jaden and pinned him by the shoulders.

"All right, mister. Talk!" he yelled. "Where have you and your friends taken us?" Yugi and Joey grabbed Kaiba to get him off Jaden. Meanwhile, Syrus came and pulled Jaden out from under Kaiba.

"Wow," Alexis said, "that guy makes you look calm, Chazz."

Jaden said to Kaiba, "Why did you attack me like that?"

"Isn't it a bit coincidental," Kaiba said to him, "that you and your friends just happen to show up, the time portal is still active, and then Yugi's attack bounces up into said portal, causing it to take us here, all in the same five minutes?" After a brief pause, he said, "Well, I don't believe in coincidence. I believe that you five brought us here. The only question is: why?"

Bastion then confronted Kaiba, saying, "I can assure you, we are all as surprised as you are. I was in the middle of a duel with Jaden. When Jaden's monster attacked mine, I had just increased my monster's attack points to cancel out his. However, the following explosion caused a strange circle to appear, not unlike the time warp you experienced. We were all no match for its gravitational force as it pulled us into your time."

"Besides, Kaiba," Mai said, "Time Wizard's a hologram, and there's no way it would have been able to do that under normal circumstances."

"Then who _is_ responsible?" Kaiba asked angrily. Just then, they heard a voice.

Max had been lying unconscious for a while now. Suddenly, he woke up to a sharp pain on his nose. He jumped nearly three feet before opening his eyes. When he did, he saw Chomp grabbing onto his nose with its mouth.

"Uh, thanks for waking me up, Chomp," he said. "Now could you get off my nose?" Chomp let go and fell to the ground. Just then, Max realized something. "Hey, Chomp, how did you get out of your card?" Chomp simply looked at him in a way that said, "Don't look at me."

He turned to find Rex and Zoe just now waking up. Both Ace and Paris seemed to be okay as well. "Guys," Max said, "are you all okay?"

"Yeah," Rex answered, "we should be fine."

Zoe looked around and said, "What do you think happened to the old lady?"

Suddenly they heard a rustle in the bushes right next to them. They slowly walked toward it before Ursula jumped out at them with an angry face.

"Why, do you insist on calling me that?" she asked with a tone to match her face. "I'm so young, I should have been born yesterday."

All the D-Team could do was make a funny look at her. Max couldn't help saying, "Just remember, you said that, not us."

Ursula looked down and saw Zander and Ed, still knocked out from their experience. "Hey, you two, wake up," she said to them. It took a little slapping here and there, but they finally got up.

"Hey, where are we?" Ed asked.

"You know, Ed, I have no idea," Ursula answered, with a curious tone in her voice.

"Let's try to contact Dr. Z," Zander suggested. "He might be able to send us a ride home."

"Yeah, good idea," Ursula agreed. She tried to activate the communication link to Zeta Point, but the scanner wouldn't work. "I can't get a signal," Ursula said with a hint of irritation.

While the Alpha Gang tried to get in touch with Zeta Point, the D-Team took a quick look around to find out where they were.

"Hey, guys," Max said, "is it possible this is a hidden dimension where all the Bermuda Triangle victims go?"

"Good theory, Max," Rex said, "but I think we would've seen something to confirm that by now."

"Until we know where we are," Zoe said, "we should at least stay together, and that includes you too, Alpha Gang." Both members of the D-Team and the Alpha Gang were not too thrilled with this idea. But it was a better idea than getting more lost than they already were. Suddenly, they heard something.

Lan had woken up relatively quickly. Strangely enough, he found himself in the room with the core generator. "Ugh, what happened?" he said to himself. Just then he realized. "MegaMan." He fumbled around for his PET. When he found it, he yelled into it, "MegaMan!"

About two seconds later, he heard, "Lan, you don't have to shout like that."

"At least I know you're okay," Lan said. He quickly ran down the stairs to look for Chaud. The last he saw of him, he was fighting off viruses a few floors down. When he reached that floor, he saw Chaud lying flat on his back and without his cross fusion form. His PET lay beside him.

"Chaud, wake up," Lan said to his rival. Chaud was struggling to get up, but when he did, he looked around, a little confused.

"Are we still in SciLab?" he asked. "Did we do it?" ("'Hello' to you too," Lan said.)

"Actually," MegaMan answered, "I'm pretty sure my shot bounced off the dimension core before I blacked out."

Chaud looked around and saw a window. He stood up and walked over to it. "Lan, you should see this." Lan walked over to were Chaud was standing. "From here, you should be able to see DenTech City's skyline."

Lan took a look outside. "But I don't see anything," he said.

"Something tells me that nobody wanted to destroy SciLab," Chaud reasoned; "somebody wanted to transport SciLab to this area."

"Which is…" Lan asked.

"We can worry about location later," Chaud said. "Right now we have to see if Dr. Hikari and Maylu are all right."

They two went down a few more floors before reaching the main terminal. Along the way, they found a few knocked out scientists who apparently never made it out. When they found the terminal, they saw Hikari, Maylu, and Rush lying unconscious, just like the other scientists. Chaud went to try to wake them up. Lan was about to do the same, but Chaud stopped him.

"Wait, Lan, check your PET first. We may need it." The systems check was still running, and showed Roll's PET to be alright. Lan disconnected Roll from the program and was about to insert his own PET before MegaMan stopped him.

"Lan, I've already checked the PET, and it looks like it just came out of diagnostic testing."

"What?" Lan said in amazement. "How is that possible?"

Suddenly, Roll became activated. She yawned and said, "Hey, guys, what'd I miss?"

Maylu, who had now awakened thanks to Chaud's efforts, ran over to Lan, who was still holding Roll's PET. Lan handed it over to Maylu. "Roll," she said to her Navi, "are you okay?"

"Sure," Roll said with a look of confusion, "why wouldn't I be?"

"It's a long story Roll," MegaMan said, "and getting longer."

It was Chaud's turn to speak. "I don't get it; why take us here and have us okay instead of having things go wrong in the worst way possible?"

"Whoever's doing this," said Hikari, who was now awake, "must have another motive that we don't yet suspect." That's when they heard a voice.

Naruto woke up feeling like he just had a bad dream. He held his head just to keep himself from feeling dizzy. He looked over and saw Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi, all of whom were getting up as well.

"Is everyone all right?" Kakashi asked.

"We're all right, sensei," Sakura said.

Sasuke still looked pretty distant. He seemed to be looking either for or at something. "Guys," he said, "we're not alone." He waited for a few seconds. In that time, Naruto realized he was using his sharingan perception.

"All right, you two, come on out!" Sasuke suddenly shouted. To either side Naruto saw Ino and Rock Lee, each coming out of the bushes with an embarrassed look on their faces.

"Bushy Brows?" Naruto said. "What are you doing here?"

"And Ino," Sakura said accusingly, "care to explain what you're doing?"

"I think I can explain for both of them," Kakashi said. Both Ino and Rock looked very nervous. "I think you two were spying on our training session. Am I right?"

Rock made a nervous bow. "Master Guy wanted me to be prepared to fight jutsu. So I was observing you, trying to figure out how those moves were used and how to best defend against them."

Ino simply stood there, trying to figure out how to word her excuse without making it seem pathetic. When she couldn't say anything, Sakura took advantage of her silence. "I bet she was eyeing Sasuke," she taunted.

"That is not the reason!" Ino yelled.

"But it's part of the reason," Sakura said. All Ino could was hang her head in embarrassment.

"We'll deal with you two later," Kakashi said. "Right now, we have to find out where we are and how we get back." Suddenly, a voice was heard.

Sonic was resting peacefully, dreaming about Eggman's newest creation: a large robot with powerful arm cannons. Unfortunately, Eggman spent all his energy on weapons that he forgot to load them with ammunition. Sonic was just about to make the final move when…

Sonic was hit hard against a tree that he flew into. When he landed, he opened his eyes and saw that everyone was looking at him, especially Amy, who was now panting with her Piko Piko Hammer in hand.

"Uh, Amy," Sonic said nervously, "next time, could you just shake me?"

"We got tired of waiting for you to wake up," Amy explained. "Just be glad that I like you. Otherwise, it would've been worse." (_Worse?_ Sonic thought to himself.)

"Where do you think we are?" Rouge asked. "Are we back on Mobius?"

"Nah, I know Mobius like the back of my hand," Sonic said. He looked down and found his communicator. "Hey, Tails, you there buddy?" No answer. "Hello?"

"Forget it, Sonic, we already tried," Knuckles said. "Wherever we are, we're not going to get a signal out here."

Suddenly, Shadow said the most random thing ever. "I'm sorry, everyone. This is all my fault." He was sitting by himself, removed from the rest of the group. His face was bowed, almost in humiliation.

"What do you mean, Shadow?" Amy asked.

"No, wait, Amy," Knuckles said, "if he wants to feel sorry for himself, let him."

"Knuckles, cut it out," Sonic scolded.

"I've been watching Eggman work on that machine since day one," Shadow said. "I could've easily destroyed it earlier. But for some reason, just before I confronted him, my logic became screwed up. I started to think that the machine wouldn't work. I can't explain how or why I thought so."

"Hey, don't worry, Shadow," Sonic said reassuringly. "As soon as we get back, you can have the first crack at that machine." Just then, they heard the voice.

"Welcome," the voice said. "You may call me 'The Master.'" No one knew what to do except remain silent. "I have taken people from six different worlds. For the time being, I have established a communication between all who are here. For any of you who have questions, as you most surely do, those questions and their answers will be for all to hear."

"I have one," Ash said. "Where is 'here?'"

"You are in the Crossroad of Worlds," said the Master.

"Does that mean we've gone to another dimension?" Dawn asked.

"No," Master answered, "it is a dimension between the dimensions."

Sonic couldn't help asking, "How were you able to get us here?"

"As a supreme being of the Crossroad," Master said, "I am able to affect various dimensions, usually where and when my power is at its peak."

MegaMan suddenly realized something. "Hey, you're that voice I heard in the generator before, aren't you? You said you were doing this because it had to be done, and that you would explain why."

"Indeed," Master said. "The answer to this will state my purpose.

"There is an evil approaching; an evil so great, it threatens to destroy all reality. It is known only as the Atrocity. It uses its power to make chaos. It is an unfeeling, uncontrollable monster. That is why you have been brought here."

"If this thing is so terrible," Kaiba said, "why don't _you_ handle it?" Many agreements could be heard.

"Alas," Master answered, "certain laws and barriers prohibit me from taking direct action in such situations. The best I can hope to do is summon brave warriors from across the multiverse. Each world brings with it virtues that others diminish or do not possess.

"Where a sense of equality produces trust…" Ash turned to face Pikachu.

"Where the tool is the warrior's heart…" Yugi looked at his deck.

"Where the impossible becomes realized…" The D-Team and Alpha Gang held tight to their holders.

"Where two worlds become one…" Lan and MegaMan looked at each other.

"Where honor is victorious…" Naruto clenched his fist.

"And where teamwork overcomes difference." Sonic looked at the ground, thinking hard.

"It is with these virtues that we can hope for the Atrocity's downfall."

Ash said to his friends, "Well, it looks like we have a job to do, guys." He put is hand forward to Jessie.

"I don't know how many times I've teamed up with you twerps," she said, "but if it's to save our world…" She put her hand on Ash's. Soon, the others followed her lead.

Yugi was the first to talk. "Looks like we're playing the ultimate Shadow Game, guys."

"That's okay," Jaden said. "I aim to win."

Max looked at Chomp, who looked like he was ready to fight. Ace and Paris had the same look.

"I guess we're all in this together," he said. "So let's do it!" The others nodded in agreement.

"What do you think, MegaMan?" Lan asked.

"Never backed down from a fight before," MegaMan said, "so why start now?"

"Guys," Naruto said, "let's show this Atrocity what we're made of."

"It won't be easy, Naruto," Kakashi warned.

"I know," Naruto said. "That just means more fighting spirit."

"Guys, you ready for this?" Sonic asked. When everyone agreed he turned to Shadow, who was silent.

"You can wallow in self-pity if you like," he said, "but we're gonna need you." Shadow thought for a moment.

"Count me in," he said. He held out his hand. Sonic grabbed and shook it.

"All right," Sonic said, "so what do we do first?"

"As you know," Master said, "there are six groups of you, one from each world. I have put you in one of six different locations. Each group will travel around looking for another. When two groups meet, they will fight in one-on-one battles."

"Whoa, hold it," Rex said, a little irritated, "why do we need to fight each other?"

"If you all wish to fight the Atrocity," Master explained, "you must first gain an under standing of who your allies are. And that is best gained through experience."

"But what if our fighting styles aren't the same?" Joey asked. Yugi realized this could be a problem, seeing as their monsters were simply holograms and could not harm or be harmed in the conventional way.

The Master had a response for this as well. "I will make sure battle is possible between each group, no matter what details may hinder such. It will be up to you, however, to decide how to fight."

"One last question," Kakashi said. "how will we discern our opponents from any other beings that live in the Crossroad?"

The Master simply said, "The only living beings in this realm are myself and whomever I have brought here.

"The time for talking is done. Now begins the training. Or, as you would say, 'let the battle begin!'"

**You heard the... uh... disembodied voice, folks. Tune in next week for the first battle. And no I won't say what it is.**


	8. R1B1 In My Hands

**Yes, folks, this is the battle that started the whole thing. (Actually, what started this whole thing was me looking for Spider-Man jokes on the Internet. Say nothing!) Yes, I refer to Pokemon vs. Yu-Gi-Oh! That Holy Grail of anime rivalries.**

**Also, you may have noticed that this**** chapter was labeled "R1B1." The perceptive among you might also have noticed the previous chapters labeled as "P." Hopefully you figured out that the P stood for _P_rologue. In this case, "R1B1" means "Round 1, Battle 1." For the many upcoming chapters, the story will be divided into 5 rounds with 3 battles each, with all six animes appearing in each round in pairs. And the formula for chronicling these battles will be presented as you read this chapter.**

**So, now that that's out of the way...**

**Round 1**

**Battle 1-In My Hands**

Yugi, once again with his pharaoh side in control, led the group of duelists along the forest floor. It had been about half an hour since the Master had given his speech. They were now on the hunt for whoever might show up.

"Man, you'd think that if that guy was in a hurry for us to fight people," Joey said, "he'd give us an opponent about thirty seconds after he was done."

"You never stop talking, do you?" Chazz asked irritably.

"Speaking of the battles that lay before us," Kaiba said, "we may have a problem. The only duel disks we have with us are the ones that…" he struggled to get the names out… "Jaden and Bastion have. But the rest of us don't have one, and I doubt that there are any standard battlefields here like there were in Duelist Kingdom.

"Good point," Alexis said. She looked up to the sky, ready to ask the Master for some help. Before she opened her mouth she heard something.

"Look down," the Master's voice said. Alexis felt something heavy on her left arm. Attached to her wrist was a duel disk not unlike the one she was used to having. Everyone else soon found they had their own duel disks as well, each one exactly like the one they normally used.

"Do these things really work?" Syrus asked.

"If the Master is as powerful as he says he is," Mai said, "then these should be okay."

"On that note," Yugi said, "we'd better move onward." They walked further and further into the forest.

* * *

Ash, his friends, and Team Rocket wandered around the forest, looking for their first opponents. Wandering around was nothing new to them; getting lost very often gave them plenty of experience. Pikachu was sitting atop Ash's head, looking and listening for any sign of anything or anyone.

"I wish Tracy was here," Ash said, mostly to himself.

"I know what you mean," Misty added. "He could use his Venonat and Marill and find somebody in almost three minutes."

"Hey, speaking of Pokémon we may need," Brock said, "we're going to have to find a way to contact home, since some of our Pokémon aren't with us." Brock had just finished his sentence when everyone saw a glow. They turned to its direction and saw a video phone and a Poké Ball transportation system.

"Simply think, and it will appear," they heard the Master's voice say. Those who had Pokémon in storage called whoever kept those Pokémon, and received what they might need in their future battle. To ease suspicion, they came up with the idea that they had gotten themselves dragged into a tournament almost unwillingly and that their current location was unknown to them. After that, the machines vanished.

It was now Dawn's turn to speak. "Hey, guys, how do we explain to our Pokémon that they'll be facing unusual opponents?"

Master replied, "They have been made well aware of the situation by now and nothing will surprise them."

Suddenly, Pikachu's ears twitched. "Pika?" Ash noticed Pikachu's sudden movement. "Pikachu, do you hear something?" Pikachu pointed to their left. Whatever Pikachu heard was behind the row of bushes that he had pointed to.

Team Rocket went to go take a look, being masters at sneaking through bushes to spy on people. Dawn and Gary followed them. All five of them saw nine people.

"What do they look like?" Brock asked when they relayed that information.

Gary spoke first. "Most of them are pretty tall and it looks like they have top physical fitness."

"I've seen better," Dawn said, "but they're not that bad when it comes to fashion. It's like formal wear is the new casual. Hey, Team Rocket," all three members turned to face her, "you know technology. What are those things on their arms?"

Jessie took a look at the nearest person. A male with a hairstyle similar to lightning bolts had a peculiar device on his left arm.

"If I didn't know better," James said, "I'd say they were some sort of blade."

Meowth said to him, "No way. Five of them have the same thing, but they're more round and duller than the others."

"It doesn't matter too much," May said. "We're not going to be able to learn any more if we just stand here."

"You're right, May," Ash said. "We've gotta take the battle to them."

* * *

Yugi suggested that they all stop for a moment. They weren't finding anybody and everyone was getting tired. They had stopped for a few minutes when they heard a rustling in the bushes. Everyone stood up and braced themselves for what they would see.

Suddenly, a boy about the age of thirteen stepped out. He was dressed in somewhat casual clothing, a hat with a peculiar design, and a small yellow rodent rested on top of his shoulder. Yugi was surprised. His normal self thought, _Amazing. He's younger than I am._ "Who are you?" Yugi asked.

"My name is Ash Ketchum, Pokémon Trainer" the boy said, "and this is my partner, Pikachu." He motioned to the creature. "Pika Pikachu." Everyone was surprised to hear it speak.

"I am Yugi Mutou," Yugi said. "I take it you are not the only one of your group."

"You'd win that bet," Ash said. "Hey, guys, come on out!" he yelled into the bushes. Seven other people came out of the same bush that Ash had earlier. Six of them were similar to Ash's style of dress, mostly casual wear. Two of them, however, had uniforms with a large "R" printed on their shirts. There was a catlike creature walking just below them, on two legs, no less.

One of the males, a dark skinned person wearing a vest, suddenly ran up to Mai and Alexis. He had a strange look on his face, like he was blushing. He then said to both of them, "Such beauty I've never beheld before." It was around that time when everyone realized what was going on, and they didn't like it; in fact, it was downright embarrassing. Still, he went on. "Tell me, what are your names?"

Mai gave a perplexed look as she said, "Um, Mai Valentine…"

Alexis was just as flustered as she answered, "Alexis… Alexis Rhodes."

"Such beautiful names for such beautiful girls," the strange person went on. "Someone tell me I'm dreaming!" Suddenly, a large frog appeared out of nowhere. Its fingers glowed purple and jabbed the man's stomach. It was all so fast, it seemed to happen instantly. The strange man seemed to be in pain, like he got poisoned. "Yep, it's a nightmare," he said in a weak voice, then collapsed on the ground. The frog then grabbed the back of his shirt and walked away. It sounded as though it was laughing. Both girls were left in a daze.

"Sorry about that," said a red-headed female, "Brock's always had a thing for pretty girls."

Joey approached her and said, "Yeah, well one of these pretty ladies has a thing for a certain someone." He indicated to himself. "So when that guy wakes up, you can tell him to give it up."

"With pleasure," she said. She then changed the subject. "Anyway, my name's Misty." This sparked off the introductions with everyone else. Everyone was surprised to hear Meowth speaking like a normal person.

"So, Ash," Yugi said, "pardon my saying so, but it doesn't seem like you and your friends are the kind who do actual fighting."

"That's because we let our Pokémon do the fighting," Ash said.

Yugi became confused at the term "Pokémon." "What is this 'Pokémon?'"

Ash motioned to Pikachu. "Well, Pokémon are special creatures with amazing powers. Take Pikachu, for instance." "Pikachu."

Alexis approached the mouse-like creature. "It's actually kinda cute." She reached her hand under Pikachu's chin and scratched it. "Pi-kaaa," it reacted pleasantly.

"Yeah, it's cute," Joey said, "but it can't even put a dent in a blade of grass." Pikachu tensed for a second and jumped off Ash's shoulder. Sparks of electricity surrounded its red cheeks. "Pika-chuuuuuu!" Electricity left Pikachu's body and headed for Joey. He had no time to dodge before the bolt hit him. Joey was surrounded in a field of electricity. When it vanished, he collapsed. "But," he said weakly, "ask it to black out Domino City and it should have no problem."

Kaiba had approached Team Rocket. He was interested in their uniforms. "Tell me," he said, "do you two work for a powerful company?"

Jessie seemed insulted. "Please, if I worked for a living, I wouldn't look as young and radiant as I do now." James and Meowth heaved a heavy sigh. "No, we're members of Team Rocket, dedicated to global domination by use of rare and valuable Pokémon."

"Doesn't sound like the type of person Master would want here," Kaiba accused, more to the Master than to the Rockets.

"Although their goals and methods are less than honorable," Master's voice said, "they care about their Pokémon, perhaps more than most people would realize."

"Based on your earlier assumption," James said, changing the subject, "you're probably the only businessman here."

"CEO of KaibaCorp," Kaiba confirmed, "top gaming manufacturer of the world."

By now, Brock had recovered and was rejoining the group, with Croagunk following. He was already in conversation with Bastion. Bastion had an interesting question for him. "How can you expect to fight us when you only have three Pokémon between you?"

"Actually," Brock answered, "we have plenty more than this; the rest are just in these balls." He picked up a Poké Ball and showed it to Bastion. He pointed it at Croagunk and recalled it. Bastion was surprised that something as big as Croagunk could fit in that small ball.

Gary was looking at Jaden's duel disk. "What is that thing, anyway? We first thought it was an arm blade."

Jaden held up his left arm. "This? This is a duel disk. It holds the cards we use whenever we do our fighting."

Dawn looked confused. "Cards?"

Syrus said to her, and anyone who would listen, "See, our 'fighting' is actually a trading card game called Duel Monsters. Using a hologram system, the creatures on the cards seemingly come to life."

May looked confused, "Holograms? Does that mean we can't hit them?"

"Remember," Master said, "such complications are easily erased."

"In that case," Yugi said, "I suggest we get this battle started."

"We'd better set up the rules," Kaiba said. "For duelists, we start with 2000 life points. Pokémon Trainers, your job is to reduce that number to zero. We'll play this in a turn based system. If you destroy one of our monsters, that will reduce our life points. When those points reach zero, you win. We fight as though it was a normal game. Any objections, feel free to ask about it."

Gary added his own set of rules to Kaiba's. "All right, to match their 2000 points, we'll use three Pokémon each. That should be an okay number. On our turn, we'll attack your creatures for twenty seconds, doing as much damage as we can. Your job is to beat our Pokémon. When all three Pokémon are unable to battle any longer, it's a win for you guys." No one had any arguments to the rules both people suggested.

"I will assist in damage calculation to the duelists," Master said. "The pairings for this battle are as follows: Ash and Yugi, Misty and Mai, Brock and Joey, Gary and Bastion, and May and Jaden." Everyone took their positions. The Trainers listened to the basic rules of Duel Monsters. When they were sure they understood, the five duelists set their hologram projectors in front of them. Suddenly, five pillars grew up from the ground. Each had a number twenty on them. "This will help with the timing on the Trainers' side," Master said.

Duelists drew their first five cards, and Trainers grabbed their first Poké Ball. Dawn used the Coin Toss application on her Pokétch to decide who moved first. All that was left was the start off signal from the Master.

"Three…" Trainers held tight to their Poké Balls. "Two…" Duelists prepared to place their cards. "One… start the battle!"

The duelists placed their cards on the duel disks and the trainers threw their Poké Balls, revealing their first Pokémon.

Ash got the first move. It was his Buizel against Yugi's Skilled Dark Magician. "Buizel, use Aqua Jet!" Water surrounded Buizel and he lifted off the ground, flying around and striking Skilled Dark Magician. "Follow up with Water Gun!" Buizel shot a powerful blast of water from his mouth. It hit the Dark Magician right in the chest, but he still wasn't down. Soon, Ash's twenty seconds were up.

Yugi drew his card. "My turn now." He placed a new card on the field. A small furry creature appeared. "I summon Kuriboh in defense mode." He placed another card on the field. "Then I play the spell card Multiply."

"What does that do?" Ash asked.

"Allow me to explain," Yugi said. "Multiply allows me to sacrifice my Kuriboh," Kuriboh suddenly disappeared, "to summon as many Kuriboh tokens as is possible in defense mode." Four creatures, similar to Kuriboh, appeared in front of Skilled Dark Magician. "Each token acts exactly like the original, except they can't be sacrificed to summon other monsters." Ash didn't know what Yugi was planning, but he would have to think of something to counter it, and quick. "Finally, I attack with Skilled Dark Magician." The tip of the magician's wand lit up and fired a powerful beam. Buizel used Aqua Jet to get out of the way, but the beam just skinned him, causing some damage.

Ash's turn again. He saw that Skilled Dark Magician was looking worn out. _One more hit should do it,_ he thought. "Buizel, Water Pulse!" Buizel aimed its attack at the magician, but one of the Kuribohs jumped in front of it, absorbing the attack and disappearing. "What happened!" Ash asked.

"Remember when I said that the Kuriboh tokens act just like the original?" Yugi said. "One of Kuriboh's special abilities is to eliminate all damage after being sacrificed. With these tokens, I can do this three more times." Ash was starting to become intimidated, so much so that he spent the rest of twenty seconds trying to figure out a way past Yugi's trick.

Yugi drew his next card. "I play the spell card Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards from my deck." He drew King's Knight and Monster Reborn. "Next I'll play Monster Reborn to bring back my original Kuriboh from the graveyard in defense mode." Kuriboh reappeared on the field, holding a defensive pose.

"Now I activate Skilled Dark Magician's ability; when I use three spell cards, I can sacrifice him," the figure of Skilled Dark Magician disappeared, "to summon the original Dark Magician." Dark Magician appeared on the field. "Now my Dark Magician attacks with Dark Magic Attack." Dark Magician raised his hand and fired a powerful beam at Buizel.

"Buizel, dodge it with Aqua Jet!" Ash yelled. Buizel surrounded itself with water, but the beam came too fast. It hit Buizel before it could jump off the ground, casing an explosion. When the smoke cleared, Buizel was left unconscious.

"Buizel, return." Ash pulled out Buizel's Poké Ball and recalled it. Ash was now one Pokémon down and Yugi was still at 2000 life points.

* * *

"Poor Buizel," Dawn said to herself. "It must not be too happy after being defeated like that."

"How can you tell?" Alexis asked.

"Because Buizel used to be my Pokémon," Dawn answered.

"'Used to?'" Alexis repeated questioningly.

"See, I'm a Pokémon Coordinator, like May over there." Dawn pointed to May, who was using her attacks impressively against Jaden. "We tend to show a Pokémon's beauty and skills rather than power." She pointed back to Buizel as Ash returned it. "Buizel relies too much on power, and didn't seem to enjoy when I tried to explain how to use his attacks uniquely. But Ash is all about power when it comes to battles. Those two were made for each other."

"But I imagine it wasn't easy letting Buizel go like that," Alexis said.

"Well," Dawn responded, "there was one consolation; I got Ash's Aipom in return." She held out the Poké Ball holding what was now an Ambipom. "It was a bit more of a showoff than normal power battles generally allow. And it seemed to enjoy watching me and my Pokémon practice our moves."

"And you believe this trade has worked out for the better?"

"I guess so. With the new lineups, both Pokémon became better than they would have if we had just stayed with our original Pokémon."

* * *

Mai had the first move. She set down her Harpie Lady and was facing Misty's Starmie. She drew her card and began. "I play Rose Whip, increasing my Harpie Lady's attack by 300."

Harpie Lady reached out and grabbed a whip of thorns that appeared out of nowhere. "Now she'll attack with Whip Strike." Harpie Lady swiped the whip at Starmie.

Starmie took a lot of damage. For a second, Misty thought she saw Starmie's jewel blink. However, it was only once and for so short a time. If Starmie was running out of energy, it must've recovered quickly. Mai ended the turn by playing a facedown.

It was now Misty's turn. "Starmie, use Rapid Spin. Chop that whip to pieces." The star-shaped Pokémon started to spin extremely fast. Because Starmie was made of two parts, each part was spinning in an opposite direction. It lifted itself off the ground and charged at Harpie Lady.

Harpie Lady held her whip up in defense. But the Rose Whip was no match for Starmie's speeding arms, which looked like a buzz saw when it connected with the vine. The whip fell to the ground in pieces before it disappeared.

With more than five seconds left, Misty called out, "Water Gun!" Starmie's top arm folded to Harpie Lady's direction and shot a jet of water at her. Without the whip, the bird woman easily crumbled under the attack's power. It instantly disappeared, leaving Mai in a daze. Her life points had dropped to 1600.

"So, what now?" Misty taunted.

* * *

Brock sent out Croagunk against Joey's Battle Warrior. Brock had the first move. "Croagunk, use Poison Jab!" Croagunk's fingers glowed with the same purple tint that had poisoned Brock earlier. Joey noticed, however, that this time, the color appeared all the way down its fingers. Last time, it only reached halfway. Croagunk struck the warrior's chest with a force so powerful that he was blown backwards.

_This must be the full power version,_ Joey thought to himself. _Maybe I can use that to my advantage._

"Follow up with Poison Sting!" Croagunk opened its mouth and let loose a lot of purple stingers. They hit Battle Warrior and caused a lot of damage, but not enough to destroy it before Brock's twenty seconds were done.

Joey drew his card and began. "First, I'll play Rocket Warrior in attack mode." Rocket Warrior appeared on the field. "Now I'll attack that Croagunk with Rocket Launch." Rocket Warrior charged forward, aiming its lance at Croagunk.

"Croagunk, counter with Poison Jab!" Brock yelled. Croagunk jumped toward Rocket Warrior and thrust its hand forward. The two were just about to connect. Suddenly, Croagunk's fingers stopped glowing. "Cro?" The lance hit Croagunk and threw it back to Brock's side of the field.

"What happened?" Brock asked.

"I figured that so-called 'Poison Jab' was being used at full power," Joey said. "One of Rocket Warrior's best moves is to take attacks that are stronger than it and reduce it to nothing. Now I'll attack with Battle Warrior's Ultimate Battle Fist." Battle Warrior charged at Croagunk.

"Croagunk, use Poison Sting to keep it back," Brock said. Croagunk sat up and fired more stingers. Brock knew that Battle Warrior wouldn't be able to take anymore. But for some reason, when the stingers hit, the warrior kept moving like nothing was happening. The warrior dealt a heavily damaging blow to Croagunk.

"Oh yeah," Joey said calmly, "I forgot to mention; after Rocket Warrior negates an attack like that, your attack becomes weaker for a short time." He placed down another card. "I'll set up a facedown and end my turn."

Brock was pushed to the edge. His Croagunk wouldn't last much longer like this. Suddenly, Croagunk stood up, almost as though Rocket Warrior's effects were wearing off. Brock saw this as his chance; if he could damage Battle Warrior with a strong attack, he could gain an advantage. "Croagunk, use Brick Break on Battle Warrior!" Croagunk's hand charged with power as he ran toward the weakened warrior.

Joey suddenly made his move. "I activate my facedown: Kunai with Chain!" A large blade came out of the ground, a chain crawling behind it. The blade circled around Croagunk, causing the chain to wrap around it. The froglike Pokémon was stopped in its tracks, struggling to get out. "With that trap card, I've negated your attack for good."

"Not quite," Brock said defiantly. "Poison Sting, Croagunk!" Croagunk's attack, now back to full power, struck Battle Warrior and caused more damage than it could handle. Battle Warrior was destroyed, causing Joey's life points to fall to 1700.

Croagunk then turned his Poison Sting on Rocket Warrior. But with more than five seconds remaining, it wasn't enough. Joey drew his card. "Hm, don't have much to do this turn. Not that it matters. Rocket Warrior, attack that Croagunk." Rocket Warrior charged forward. Brock was frozen in his tracks as the warrior's lance hit Croagunk for the knockout.

* * *

Bastion drew his card and began. He already had Hydrogeddon on the field. Gary had chosen his Umbreon to start the battle.

"I'll play this card facedown," he said, putting his card on the field. "Next I'll summon Mathematician in attack mode." An old, sage-like figure appeared on the field. "Of course, doing so forces me to discard the top card of my deck." He took the card and looked at it; it was his Carboneddon. _Perfect,_ he thought to himself. _Even though it's in the graveyard, it will still provide me with the power I need._

"Next, I'll make a combined attack with Mathematician and Hydrogeddon," he said. Both monsters aimed their attacks at Umbreon. Despite their combined moves, however, Umbreon only suffered a little damage.

"My turn," Gary said. "Umbreon, use Shadow Ball." A dark sphere appeared in front of the Pokémon's open mouth. "Aim it at that Mathematician." Umbreon released the ball and it flew towards Mathematician. The old sage couldn't handle the Shadow Ball's power. It disappeared in a brilliant explosion. Bastion's life points fell to 1700. But he smiled to himself. _That's one._

"Since you destroyed my Mathematician," Bastion said, "I can draw one card from my deck." He pulled out another Hydrogeddon.

There were still ten seconds, so Gary ordered another Shadow Ball at Hydrogeddon. Before Umbreon could launch the attack, Bastion moved. "I activate my facedown, Magic Cylinder."

Umbreon launched his attack just as a hollow cylinder appeared. The cylinder absorbed the attack and turned around, launching Umbreon's Shadow Ball back at it. The ball hit and Umbreon was damaged, but only so much due to Shadow Ball being a ghost attack.

"Magic Cylinder," explained Bastion, "takes my opponent's attack and redirects it back to them." _That's two,_ Bastion thought.

_I don't get it,_ Gary said to himself. _Why didn't he use that before when I blasted his Mathematician? He's got something planned, and I'll have to stay one step ahead of him if I want to win. But with these new rules, that'll be difficult._

Gary's twenty seconds were up and Bastion drew his next card. "I play the spell card Pot of Greed, letting me draw two cards." _Three._ He picked up his cards and looked at his hand. He put down another trap card. "Now, Hydrogeddon will attack with Hydro Gust." The gaseous dragon opened its mouth and launched its attack, striking Umbreon. Umbreon fell from exhaustion and was unable to battle.

"Now, I'll end my turn by taking advantage of Hydrogeddon's ability, and that is to summon another Hydrogeddon when he succeeds in defeating an opponent." For a minute, Gary thought he was seeing double as Bastion played his second Hydrogeddon.

* * *

May was confronting Jaden's Elemental Hero Burstinatrix with her Glaceon. May started the battle with her Shadow Ball attack. The ball hit Burstinatrix and caused some damage. "Use Ice Beam!" May commanded. Glaceon opened her mouth and shot out a jagged white-blue beam at the Elemental Heroine. Burstinatrix was frozen solid in a block of ice.

May then commanded Glaceon to use Secret Power. Glaceon's body glowed pink as she charged at the frozen figure. The result was a large explosion; shards of ice were flying in all directions, almost like they were dancing. Burstinatrix was freed from her icy prison, left in a heap.

"What was that about?" Jaden asked. He'd never seen attacks that were used to look like something out of a talent show.

"Call it a habit," May said, "but where I come from, we have Pokémon Contests where the idea is to make your Pokémon and their attacks look good." May's twenty seconds were now up.

Jaden drew his card. He thought hard about May's Glaceon and what moves it could use to render his attack ineffective. If it was as good with style and flare as May was boasting, simply getting out of the way of his attack might make this battle difficult. "I'll play two facedown cards…" he set two cards on his duel disk, "then I'll have Burstinatrix attack with Flare Storm." _Let's see it dodge this._

Burstinatrix opened her hands and summoned two fireballs. She threw them in Glaceon's direction, making more fireballs as she did. With skill and grace, Glaceon managed to dodge most of the balls. Those that caused damage had only landed right next to her. By the end, at first glance, Glaceon was virtually unharmed.

It was May's turn again. She was about to attack when Jaden did something unexpected. "I activate my trap card: A Hero Emerges!" May looked confused. Jaden explained, "Basically, you pick one card from my hand. The card you pick determines what happens next."

May didn't have time to think about what card to pick, time was winding down and it was all luck anyway. "Second from the right," she said, and she mentally crossed her fingers.

"Congratulations, May," Jaden said, "you've allowed me to play Hero Kid in defense mode." Hero Kid appeared on the field, taking a defensive stance. "Not only that," Jaden said, "but that was a special summon, and when Hero Kid is summoned like that, I can special summon another one on the field." He took two cards from his hand and put them on the disk, revealing two more figures identical to the first Hero Kid, both in defense mode.

May had to think fast. "Glaceon, use Ice Shard," she said. Chunks to ice flew everywhere. _This way,_ May thought, _I can attack all of them at once and not have to worry about Burstinatrix's attack and what Hero Kid can do in defense._ Unfortunately, some of the shards had melted before they hit anything.

"Did you really think that I would fall for that twice?" Jaden asked rhetorically. "I knew you'd try another ice attack, which is why I had Burstinatrix raise her body temperature, turning up the heat, as it were."

Jaden drew his next card. "Now I play the spell card Burst Impact!" Burstinatrix started to flare up. "This card only works with a Burstinatrix card that I control. By sacrificing all other monsters on the field…" all three Hero Kids disappeared, "she can create a powerful attack. The more monsters sacrificed, the more powerful my attack is."

Burstinatrix started to charge up the new power inside her, then with a wave of her hand, a wave of fire headed straight for Glaceon. May quickly called out, "Mirror Coat, Glaceon!" Glaceon's body started to glow in waves of white light. The Pokémon stood still as the attack covered her body.

Suddenly, to Jaden's surprise, the attack was blown away. "Shadow Ball!" May yelled. Glaceon fired its attack at the flames, which were now headed back to Burstinatrix. The flames surrounded the ball into a sphere of fire. Jaden yelled for Burstinatrix to get out of the way. _I thought he'd try that,_ May thought to herself. "Ice Beam!" she commanded. Glaceon fired her attack at Burstinatrix's legs. The ice trapped her to the ground; she couldn't move.

"What happened?" Jaden asked. "I thought she was protected against ice attacks?"

"Maybe," May said, "but you were focused on getting away, not melting ice."

Burstinatrix heated herself up and melted the ice off her legs. But when she looked up, she saw the Shadow-Fire Ball coming in too close. There was no time to avoid it. The ball hit her an caused an explosion, destroying her. Jaden's life points dropped to 1200.

_How am I supposed to beat someone who can use my own attacks against me?_

_

* * *

_

_I'm gonna need something really powerful to battle that Dark Magician,_ Ash thought to himself. He pulled out another Poké Ball and threw it. "Charizard, I choose you!" he yelled. Out of the brilliant white light came a large, orange dragon with a flame on the tip of its tail.

Yugi stared at Charizard for a second. "I must say, Ash," he said, "that's an impressive creature you have. I imagine it wasn't easy to obtain it."

"Actually," Ash said, "when I first caught it, it was probably no bigger than those Kuribohs. Back then, it was called Charmander. The only hard part was getting it to listen to me after it evolved to this level. But it was well worth it in the end." Charizard attempted to prove Ash's point by launching a powerful Flamethrower attack. But Ash's hopes were disappointed as another Kuriboh took the full brunt of the attack.

"There's gotta be a way past those Kuribohs," Ash said to himself. As long as all three were out there, tokens and original, Ash wouldn't be able to lay a finger on Dark Magician. Yugi would just keep blocking his attacks.

_Wait a minute,_ Ash thought, _that's it! If I can't attack anyone, then I won't even try._ "Charizard," he commanded, "flap your wings hard." Charizard moved it's large wings back and forth, creating a massive wind. The Kuribohs tried to brace themselves, but to no avail. They were all swept up by the wind. They crashed into the trees of the forest behind them and disappeared.

"Now, Charizard, use Flamethrower," Ash said. Charizard let out another blast of flames, and this time they surrounded Dark Magician in a fiery inferno. But the flames weren't enough to destroy it as twenty seconds dwindled to zero.

Yugi drew his next card. "I'll play King's Knight in attack mode." A foreboding figure appeared on the field. "Next, I play one facedown."

_Great,_ Ash thought to himself,_ if what those guys told me about facedown cards is true, then anything I do might set it off. I'll have to end this quickly._

"Now, King's Knight, attack that Charizard with Royal Slash!" Yugi shouted. The knight charged forward with its sword raised high.

"Charizard, defend with Steel Wing!" Ash yelled. Charizard raised its wing over itself as it began to glow. King's Knight jumped up and lowered the sword. Suddenly, just as the sword made contact, the blade shattered, leaving only the hilt and whatever metal was still attached to it.

"But how is that possible?" Yugi asked.

"Well," Ash returned, "it is called 'Steel Wing' for a reason."

"Well," Yugi said, "it doesn't matter too much, I still have one monster that can defeat that Charizard. Dark Magic Attack!" Dark Magician raised his hand again and launched his attack.

"Charizard, fly!" Ash yelled. Charizard opened its wings and took off just before the attack hit.

Ash turn. "All right Charizard, that King's Knight is vulnerable now. Overheat!" Charizard glowed a deep red before launching an attack of intense heat at the knight. King's Knight raised his shield in an attempt to defend himself, but it had very little effect. He could still feel the heat, heat like the desert sun.

"Now, Charizard," Ash said, "finish it with Seismic Toss." Charizard charged toward King's Knight and grabbed him, carrying him off into the sky. He then started doing aerial loops and high speed. For a second, Yugi thought he could see an image of the world inside the loop. Suddenly, Charizard grabbed the knight and threw him down to the field. Upon impact with the ground, the King's Knight was destroyed. Yugi's life points took a serious hit, falling to 800.

Ash decided to finish up the battle by using the little time he had left to use Flamethrower on Dark Magician. But before he could, Yugi said, "I activate my facedown: Spellbinding Circle!" A mystic circle appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Charizard. He struggled to move but couldn't budge. Realizing there was little time left, he tried to fire another Flamethrower. When he opened his mouth, however, no flames came out.

Yugi started his next turn and said, "There's not much sense in prolonging this any more. Dark Magician, finish that Charizard!" Dark Magician raised his hand for one last Dark Magic Attack. Without the ability to move, all Charizard, and Ash, could do was hope that the attack wouldn't end the battle.

The attack collided with Charizard and caused an explosion. Ash waited anxiously for the smoke to clear. When it did, he saw Charizard, still standing and without the circle surrounding him. "All right, Charizard," Ash said excitedly, "now we can finish him off!"

"Sorry to ruin your day, Ash," Yugi said confidently. "But the Spellbinding Circle stays with its target until…" he paused as Charizard fell, "…it is defeated in battle!"

* * *

Mai drew her next card. At this rate, if Misty had beaten her Harpie Lady this easily, it wouldn't be long before she was wiped out of the battle. She looked at the card she drew. She breathed a quick sigh of relief and smiled to herself.

"I play Harpie Lady in Attack mode," Mai said, setting down another Harpie Lady.

"What?" Misty said in disbelief. "I thought Starmie took it out."

"That star only took out one of my Harpies," Mai said. "I still have two more." She reached into her hand and pulled out another card. "Now I play the spell card Elegant Egotist. As long as I have one Harpie Lady on the field, I can summon the Harpie Lady Sisters!" Harpie Lady's figure divided into three similar creatures.

"Now I play Cyber Shield," Mai said, "increasing the sisters' attack points by 500." All three harpies were bathed in a white light before Misty saw the sisters clad in female battle armor.

"Now it's time to experience the full fury of the Harpies," Mai said confidently. "Whirlwind Claw!" All three sisters backed into each other and started to spin with amazing speed. The vortex headed for Starmie.

"Starmie, use Camouflage!" Misty yelled. Starmie immediately disappeared from view.

"I activate my facedown: Shadow of Eyes," Mai said. "This card reveals hidden opponents." Soon, Starmie was back in full view. The vortex continued to focus in on the star shaped Pokémon. Without the ability to hide, Starmie was easily overpowered by the swirling talons. After many swipes of claws, Starmie was thrown backward, lying face-up when it landed. Misty looked at Starmie's jeweled core; it was blinking, this time nonstop.

Misty recalled Starmie and threw her next Poké Ball. Mai noticed this ball looked a little different. The main color was blue with a peculiar red shape in the middle. "Corsola, I choose you!" A small, coral-like Pokémon appeared, jumping up and down with joy. "Corsola, use Spike Cannon!" Misty commanded. Corsola glowed and pointed her horns toward the sisters. Small needles came out of the horns, heading for the target. However, the armor completely blocked the attack.

Misty, becoming very frustrated, shouted, "Alright, Corsola, use Bubblebeam, full force!" A stream of bubbles came out of Corsola's mouth. The bubbles hit the Harpies' armor and actually managed to discomfort them, but not enough to do noticeable damage.

With twenty seconds come and gone, Mai made her next move. She drew her card and immediately played it. "I play Monster Reborn to summon one of my Harpie Ladies back onto the field." Harpie Lady was, for the third time, on the battlefield staring at Misty.

"I'm getting really tired of seeing these things," Misty said under her breath. Misty's troubles worsened when Mai played another Cyber Shield for this Harpie as well.

"Now," Mai said, "Harpie Lady attacks!" The Harpie started swiping away at Corsola, causing some serious damage.

"Corsola, Recover," Misty said. The coral Pokémon started to glow. Mai noticed that she was becoming stronger, almost like the damage was being erased.

"No matter," Mai said with regained confidence, "I still have Whirlwind Claw." The sisters formed the vortex again and headed for Corsola.

Realizing there was little she could do against it, Misty ordered Corsola to Tackle. The Pokémon charged at the whirling Harpies. It did little good, as Corsola was blown back by the impact. She landed on the ground with her horns stuck fast into the forest floor.

Despite having done their damage, the sisters still headed for Corsola. Misty commanded for her to try to break loose. But try as she might, Corsola was stuck there. All Misty could do was hope that Corsola's Rock-type defense would protect it.

* * *

"Crobat, I choose you!" Brock said as he tossed his Poké Ball. A large bat with four wing appeared. "Crobat, use Cross Poison." The bat-like Pokémon flew at amazing speeds while it's wings glowed a bright purple, not unlike Croagunk's Poison Jab.

Rocket Warrior held up his lance in defense. But the lance was no match for Crobat's fast and furious movements. It went behind the warrior and left him in a daze. Before he could react, Crobat swiped its wings across the warrior's back, forming a purple "X" where it swiped. Rocket Warrior couldn't withstand the attack's power. Joey's life points again fell to 1200.

Joey drew his next card. He looked at the image and said to himself, "Yes, just what I need." He set a spell card on the field. "I play my Scapegoat," he said. Four sheep-like creatures appeared on the field. "These are sheep tokens. These little guys help me with this big guy." He pulled out a card. "I summon Panther Warrior in attack mode." A fierce, humanoid panther appeared. "You see," Joey explained, "Panther Warrior can't attack unless I sacrifice another monster. These sheep tokens are expendable sacrificing material, allowing me to attack up to four times without having to get rid of my good cards."

The minute he finished talking, one of the tokens disappeared. "Slasher Sword!" Joey called out. Panther charged forward, raising his blade. But Crobat managed to fly out of the way. Frustrated, Panther tried again, only to be met with consecutive dodges no matter which way he slashed. Seeing it was pointless, Joey ended the turn.

_If he needs those Scapegoats to attack,_ Brock thought, _then the logical thing to do is get rid of them._ "Crobat, use Wing Attack on the Scapegoats," he commanded. Crobat charged with its wings outstretched. It hit one of the tokens and sent it in the air. Crobat turned around and hit the Scapegoat again, making it seemingly bounce in midair. It took a few tries, but the Scapegoat was finally destroyed.

"Hey," Joey said, "I need those."

"I know that," Brock said. "why do you think I'm doing this?" Crobat had already continued its assault on another token. The process was the same as with the first one. However, attacking Joey's Scapegoats only made him angry.

With one last Scapegoat, Crobat charged in for the finish. "Panther Warrior, protect that last Scapegoat!" Joey yelled. Just as Crobat was almost on top of its target, it was smacked down by Panther Warrior's blade. The force of the impact, as well as the fact that Crobat was virtually unprepared for the blow, made the bat Pokémon unable to continue.

* * *

"Wow," Jessie said in amazement, "the twerp's really getting pounded."

"Get Wheeler angry enough and he's bound to do something right," Kaiba said uninterestingly.

"I take it you two aren't the best of friends," James said.

Kaiba started getting tense. "He's an arrogant pushover who doesn't think straight most of the time."

"Arrogant pushover or not," Meowth said, "this guy's doing pretty good."

There was a pause as they waited for Brock to choose his next Pokémon. "I have to say, this is an interesting way to battle," Kaiba said suddenly. "Usually the monsters we control are defeated with a single hit if it's successful."

"I imagine that must make your battles pretty short," Jessie commented.

"Not exactly," Kaiba said. "Some duels might go on for an hour or more. Remember, the idea is to reduce one's life points to zero, not defeat the monsters. You could have a full field of monsters and still lose. It's all about how you play the game."

* * *

Gary needed something pretty powerful to deal with two Hydrogeddons. He pulled out another Poké Ball. But this one was a little darker than most ordinary balls.

"What kind of ball is that?" Bastion asked.

"It's called a Heavy Ball. It's used to hold Pokémon that are bigger than normal. For instance…" He threw the ball at the field. "Kingler, go!" A giant crab appeared, almost knocking Bastion over with surprise.

"What on Earth is that thing?" Bastion said with wonder.

Gary chuckled. "You're looking at a one-of-a-kind Kingler, my friend. Ordinarily, Kingler can grow to be 4'3"."

"But that thing must be at least ten feet," Bastion said.

"More than 10'7" at the horns," Gary said. "Measured it myself. And with a size like that, it'll take out your Hydrogeddons with one Crabhammer!" Kingler raised its pincers over the gaseous dragons. It lowered them with a thud and the dragons suddenly dispersed.

"Well technically, that's two Crabhammers," Gary said, "but you get the idea." But Gary's victory was to be short lived, as the Hydrogeddons suddenly sprang back to life and knocked Kingler aside.

"What?" Gary said in amazement. "I knew they were made of gas, but that's crossing the line a bit."

"Sometimes, you have to make useful whatever is available," Bastion argued.

"Kingler, use Guillotine!" Gary said out of desperation. Kingler's giant claws glowed as it opened them wide. It grabbed one of the Hydrogeddons and pressed its claws down. But as it did, the dragon opened its mouth and shot out a Hydro Gust, knocking it out of the claws and Kingler backwards.

With twenty seconds now gone, Bastion started his turn. "I play one trap card facedown. Then I play the spell card Living Fossil, summoning my Mathematician back from the graveyard." The wizened old sage appeared on the field again. "The downside is that its attack is reduced by 1000 and any special effects it can use are negated."

"Seems like a waste if you ask me," Gary said matter-of-factly.

"Trust me," Bastion said, "it will be worth it in the end." He picked up another card from his hand. "I now summon Oxygeddon in attack mode!" A large dragon made of swirling blue gasses appeared. "Now it's time for a double Hydro Gust." Both Hydrogeddons opened their mouths.

Before they could fire the attack, Gary called out, "Use Iron Defense!" Kingler crossed its claws in front of it and a streak of light shone across it. The Hydro Gusts slammed against Kingler, but did no noticeable damage.

"If power isn't going to work," Bastion said, "I'll have Mathematician attack with Number Cruncher." A barrage of numbers flew out of the sage's staff. But Kingler was still holding its Iron Defense, sparing it from damage. Bastion looked discouraged. "That didn't work. Oxygeddon, Sonic Screech." Oxygeddon opened its mouth and loosed sonic waves that made Gary shudder in pain. Kingler, however, was a bit more solid, not even flinching.

It was Gary's turn now. "Since that Mathematician is weak, we'll attack it first. Water Pulse!" Kingler raised its claw and opened it. A blue orb appeared between the two halves and shot out at Mathematician. Once again, it was defeated, causing Bastion's life points to fall to 1200.

_Two more to go,_ Bastion thought to himself.

"Yeah," Gary said, "that was _really_ worth it."

"Actually, it was," Bastion said calmly. "For in destroying my Mathematician, you've allowed me to activate one of my trap cards: Last Magnet." The card revealed itself to Gary; the image on it looked like a knight stuck to a construction magnet. Soon Gary saw his giant Kingler rise off the ground into the air. He looked up and saw that it was stuck to a magnet not unlike the one on the card.

"This card reduces your attack power by 800," Bastion said. "But since this isn't an actual duel, we can only guess how much your attack has fallen."

"I'll tell you how much," Gary said confidently. "None!" Bastion looked taken aback at this. "The only reason my Kingler's on that thing is because of its Iron Defense. Imagine what would happen if I told Kingler to…" he looked up at his Pokémon. "Remove Iron Defense!" Kingler's shine went away and he came crashing down on the ground. "Now, destroy that magnet with Crabhammer!" Kingler raised its claws and struck the magnet, causing it to shatter. _One more,_ Bastion thought.

"Now finish off those last three with Surf attack," Gary commanded. Kingler slammed its claw against the ground. A huge wave, even bigger than Kingler, appeared and rushed to the three dragons.

"I activate my Amorphous Barrier trap card," Bastion said. A mystic dome appeared around all three monsters, protecting them from the waves. "This card prevents all damage done to my monsters," Bastion said, "and ends your turn immediately." Surprised, Gary looked back at the timer to see if it was true. Sure enough, whatever time remained on it quickly dwindled to zero. _That's the last card._

Bastion drew his card. "Perfect," he said, so Gary could hear. "With this card, I now have the final piece of the puzzle." Gary braced himself for what might happen.

* * *

It was still Jaden's turn. Glaceon's Mirror Coat had really put him in a tight spot. If she could break through a Burst Impact, this might be difficult. Keeping a straight face, Jaden summoned his next monster: Elemental Hero Sparkman.

"Next, I play the spell card Spark Blaster," Jaden said. A handheld projectile weapon appeared in the hero's hand. Immediately, he fired a stream of electricity at Glaceon. "Allow me to tell you what this weapon does," Jaden said to May. "When it's fired at an opponent, it forces the target into defense mode." Glaceon was hit by the beam, but it looked like no damage was done. However, true to Jaden's words, it bent down into a defensive stance and waited for its opponent to make a move.

"Listen," May said, "if you wanted to get beaten that badly, you should've asked. Glaceon, Mirror Coat." Glaceon started to shimmer with that same aura of light that beat Burstinatrix earlier.

"I don't think so, May," Jaden said confidently. "I play the spell card Heated Heart!" He held up a card with a large "H" on the image. "This card not only increases my Elemental Heroes' attack by 500, but it also allows me to break through my opponents' defenses. Sparkman, use Static Shockwave!" Sparkman's fist surrounded with electricity before shooting it out at Glaceon. With his newfound power, the Mirror Coat proved ineffective against the electric currents. Glaceon collapsed from the voltage.

May recalled Glaceon and threw another ball, this one revealing Wartortle. The turtle Pokémon used Bubble to start. Bubbles came out of Wartortle's mouth in a calm, relaxing manner. At first, Jaden wondered why May would use an attack that wasn't too forceful.

May waited until the bubbles were above Sparkman. "Now, Wartortle, use Ice Beam!" The familiar jagged white-blue beam shot out at the bubbles. It didn't hit them, but by passing through, all the bubbles were frozen solid. Unable to hold the new weight, the frozen bubbles crashed down on Sparkman. However, the combination took too long to execute, so May's twenty seconds were gone.

Jaden started the turn by having Sparkman fire his blaster again. Wartortle was hit by the stream of lightning, forcing it to use its Withdraw. "Now I'll play two trap cards," Jaden said. "I now summon Elemental Hero Clayman in attack mode." A large figure in bulky battle armor appeared. "Finally, I'll end this turn by attacking that Wartortle." Sparkman loosed his Static Shockwave at the turtle Pokémon.

Without the ability to attack, it seemed as though Wartortle was doomed. But May had another idea. "Wartortle, use Rapid Spin." The shell started spinning on the ground. The shockwave struck the shell and released smoke on impact.

For a second, Jaden thought he had this wrapped up. Suddenly, he saw the shockwave coming back at Sparkman. Unprepared for this turn of events, Sparkman was destroyed, leaving Jaden with 1000 life points.

"What? How?" Jaden asked dumbfounded. Soon the smoke had cleared and he saw Wartortle still spinning in its shell. "Wait," Jaden said. "You mean to tell me…"

"It's a pretty common move," May noted. "Rapid Spin can be used to block or even deflect attacks."

Having had enough of May almost taunting her, Jaden practically yelled, "All right, Clayman, attack that Wartortle!" Clayman ran up to the spinning turtle and kicked it into the forest behind it. The Pokémon's shell bounced off a number of trees until it came back to May. Wartortle squirmed out of its shell, exhausted, in pain, and beaten.

* * *

"All right, Pikachu," Ash said, "it's up to you." "Pika." Pikachu walked onto the field facing off against the Dark Magician. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled. Sparks flew around Pikachu's cheeks and shot out at the magician.

Dark Magician raised his staff at the lightning coming towards him. The lightning touched the tip of the staff and disappeared.

"He's using that staff like a lightning rod," Ash said to himself. "Pikachu, use Iron Tail!" Pikachu jumped up towards Dark Magician. "Chuuuuuu…" Its tail started glowing to a level similar to the Steel Wing Charizard had used. Dark Magician raised its staff in defense. "Pi-ka!" Pikachu slammed its tail against the staff. The staff snapped in two pieces where Pikachu hit it.

"Now, Thunderbolt!" "Pika-chuuuuuu!" The electricity surrounded Dark Magician. With no way to defend himself, he started suffering heavily. Twenty seconds were coming up fast, and all Yugi could do was hope that time would run out before Dark Magician's energy. Somehow, Yugi's wish was granted and Dark Magician was still standing.

"Man, that thing's tough," Ash said.

Yugi, trying to keep a steady mind, said, "Dark Magician is my best card. It shouldn't be easy to defeat him." Yugi drew his next card. He saw the image and smiled to himself. He set it aside for now and began. "I play the spell card Polymerization, fusing together my Dark Magician with a card in my hand…" he picked up the card he drew earlier. "Buster Blader." Buster Blader appeared on the field. It was only for so short a time though. Immediately, Dark Magician and Buster Blader seemed to collide with one another before a blinding flash shown on the battlefield. When it was over, a new monster appeared; he had armor that looked like both monsters as well as Buster Blader's sword and Dark Magician's face.

"What is that?" Ash asked.

Yugi said, "Meet Dark Paladin, my strongest monster. And he'll finish of this battle with his Mystic Scepter Slash attack." Dark Paladin ran towards Pikachu, his sword held high. "And because your Charizard is defeated, Dark Paladin gains 500 attack points."

"Pikachu, block it with Iron Tail!" Ash yelled. Pikachu charged forward with his tail glowing. He jumped up to meet Dark Paladin's sword.

"No defense can help you now, Ash," Yugi said.

The sword was brought down. "Pi-ka!" Pikachu whipped its tail at the sword. The two connected. The power of both attacks caused an explosion, smoke flying everywhere. No one could see anything.

* * *

The Harpie Lady Sisters started slashing at Corsola with a force so hard, it actually became dislodged from it position. Unfortunately, the intense attack wiped out Corsola's energy. Misty tried to have it use Recover, but Corsola was too tired.

"Looks like I win the battle," Mai said.

"I still have one more Pokémon left," Misty said. She pulled out her last Poké Ball. "Time for my best one," she said out loud. "I choose you, Gyarados!" A bright light and a small duck-like Pokémon appeared. "Psyy," it said.

Mai took one look at the Pokémon and couldn't help laughing. "That's your 'best Pokémon?' Gee, I'd hate to see your most pathetic."

"Psyduck," Misty shouted angrily, "I wanted Gyarados, not you." Psyduck simply looked at her. "Psyy?" _If only this wasn't a real battle. I could've called it back before I was forced to use it._ "All right, fine," Misty said defeatedly. "If you want to battle then go ahead." Psyduck simply turned toward the Harpie Ladies staring at him.

"Scratch, Psyduck," Misty said. Psyduck ran to one of the sisters and swiped its hand across the armor. Time seemed to stand still as they waited for the result. Soon, Psyduck became aware of the intense pain it had inflicted… on itself! Psyduck started running back and forth around the field idiotically, holding out its hand and screaming, "Psy aye aye aye aye!"

Misty simply kneeled down holding her head. "Psyduck, your headache must be contagious because now _I'm_ getting one!"

_Headache, huh?_ Mai thought to herself. _That sounds like a weak spot to me._ Mai waited until twenty seconds were over, which was spent watching Psyduck run around the field and Misty getting frustrated. When it was over, she drew her card and ordered the Harpie Lady Sisters to use Whirlwind Claw. "Aim for the head," she told them.

Misty's frustration spell had ended the minute Mai said "head." She looked up to see the tornado of Harpies attack Psyduck, swiping at its head. _This might be just the thing I need to win._ As she smiled to herself, Misty kept her composure as though she was still frustrated; she didn't want Mai to catch on.

Mai watched as the battle was being won. Suddenly, she saw the sisters' tornado formation freeze. "What's wrong? Keep attacking!" When she didn't get a response, she looked closely at the Harpies. It seemed as though they were struggling against an invisible force. "What's going on?" Mai asked. She heard Misty chuckling.

"You really shouldn't have aimed for the head," she said as she got up. "By attacking its head, you've unlocked its true power. You're witnessing Disable, soon to be followed by Confusion." All three Harpies were lifted into the air.

"Harpie Lady, help them out," Mai ordered. Harpie Lady flew over to Psyduck with talons bared. Suddenly, she stopped in midair before joining her sisters above.

"Now, get rid of their armor." Psyduck started humming as the armor came flying off the Harpies in pieces. All four Harpies crashed to the ground. "All right, Psyduck," Misty said. "Send that armor back to them." The armor pieces started hurling themselves via Psyduck's Confusion power.

The Harpies were bombarded with shards of their own armor. The pain must have been too much because all four of them disappeared at the same time. Mai's points then took a nosedive: from 1600 all the way down to zero.

After her Harpies and life points disappeared, Mai walked toward Misty slowly. She looked at her opponent and held out her hand. "Good job, Misty," she said. "I haven't been that surprised in a duel since my first battle with Joey."

Misty put her hand on Mai's. "Thanks. You weren't so bad yourself."

"I have to say, I was wrong about Psyduck," Mai said. "It truly is your best Pokémon."

Misty looked surprised for a moment, not at Mai's comment, but at Mai's inability to pay attention. "Are you nuts?" she yelled. "I didn't even want Psyduck out there in the first place!" She calmed down and continued. "Psyduck always comes out when I don't need it, especially when I try to send something else out." "Psyy?" Suddenly, they heard an explosion.

* * *

Brock returned Crobat and pulled out his final Poké Ball. "Steelix, I choose you!" He threw the ball and a large serpent made of rocks appeared.

"Yikes!" Joey exclaimed. "That thing is huge!"

"Steelix is one the biggest Pokémon in existence," Brock said, "and my very first."

Joey drew his next card with caution. Steelix looked pretty tough. It wouldn't be easy to do any damage. To make things worse, he only had one Scapegoat left. He'd have to save it for the most opportune moment.

"I play my Alligator's Sword," Joey said, placing another card on his disk. A lizard-like being appeared on the field. "Now I play Dark Dragon Ritual." He held up a card with an image of an alter and a shadow coming out of a mystic circle. A mysterious light started to swirl around Alligator's Sword. "By tributing a level 4 monster," Joey explained, "I can summon the Knight of Dark Dragons!" The light disappeared and revealed an imposing figure.

"Now, Knight of Dark Dragons, attack with Dark Lance!" Joey yelled. The knight raised his lance and charged for Steelix. Steelix made no attempt to move as the lance struck it. Just then, the lance bent under the force of impact with Steelix's harder-than-diamond body. When it straightened out, the knight flipped over Steelix's body, who moved its tail to return him, forcefully, to his side. Frustrated, Joey ended his turn by playing a trap card.

"Now, Steelix, use Iron Tail," Brock said. Steelix's tail began to glow. It lifted the tail and slammed it down towards Knight of Dark Dragons. The knight got out of the way just in time. But the force was so great, even Joey could feel the wind upon impact. "Now use Dragon Breath!" Steelix opened its mouth and released a forceful, light blue energy. The energy struck Panther Warrior and caused plenty of damage.

"Knight of Dark Dragons, help him out," Joey said. The knight ran in front of Panther Warrior and raised its lance in defense. Although Knight of Dark Dragons still experienced some damage, it was enough to keep Brock at bay for another turn.

Joey drew his card, relying on his luck to get him through this. He looked at the card he just drew. When he saw the image, on the inside he was jumping for joy. "I activate Knight of Dark Dragon's special ability, which allows me to sacrifice him to summon my best card on the field: Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" The knight disappeared and in his place, a large, black dragon emerged.

"However, Red-Eyes can't attack this turn because of how I summoned it," Joey said, but without worry. "So to make up for it, I play the spell card Claw of Hermos." Another large dragon appeared and seemingly absorbed Red-Eyes. Just then, there was a blinding flash. When it was over, Brock looked at where the dragon Hermos was standing. Instead, he saw a dark blade.

"Now I equip the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword to Panther Warrior, raising his attack points by 1000," Joey said. Panther reached out and took the blade. "Finally, I sacrifice my last Scapegoat to have Panther Warrior attack your Steelix." Panther Warrior charged toward Steelix, raising the sword.

"Steelix, use Iron Tail to defend!" Brock commanded. Steelix's tail started glowing again.

"I activate my trap card, Skull Dice," Joey said. An impish creature appeared and threw a single six-sided die. "Whatever number the die lands on affects your attack power," Joey said. When the die finished jumping and spinning, it landed on the number five. Steelix noticed that its tail started shining less brightly.

Panther Warrior struck Steelix with the sword at the same time it struck with Iron Tail. The two opponents struggled against the force both were exerting on each other. Suddenly, Panther Warrior's sword succeeded in pushing Steelix back. The iron snake Pokémon left a large trench where it slid. When it stopped, Steelix was shown to be unconscious.

Brock recalled his Pokémon. He turned to Joey and said, "Well, I guess that's your victory."

Joey looked at his opponent and said, "Thanks, but its pretty obvious your Pokémon were pretty good."

"Well," Brock said, "I do make it a hobby to raise Pokémon well." Just then, a loud boom shifted their attention.

* * *

"I play Bonding-H2O," Bastion said. Gary watched as the gasses of both Hydrogeddons and Oxygeddon swirled around them. "By tributing all three of these monsters, I summon Water Dragon!" The swirling stopped and Gary stared at the creature before him: a huge sea serpent, made of water, almost the size of Kingler.

"Now I play a very special ability," Bastion said. A light similar to the one shining when a monster is summoned appeared on the field. "Do you recall the card I was forced to discard by summoning Mathematician?"

"Yeah," Gary said, "what about it?"

Bastion reached into his graveyard and pulled out a card. "This is Carboneddon," he said. "Its special ability activates when it is in the graveyard and ten cards are placed on top of it, allowing me to summon the diamond dragon, Hyozanryu!" Out of the light came a translucent dragon. Its scales were sky blue in color, reminiscent of certain precious gems.

"With these two monsters on the field, victory is assured," Bastion said boastfully. "Water Dragon, attack his Kingler with Tidal Blast!" The serpent opened its mouth and loosed a forceful jet of water. Kingler was blown back a few inches. "Now, Hyozanryu, attack with Diamond Flame." Fire with a color to match the dragon's skin surrounded the giant Kingler.

"Kingler, try using Water Pulse," Gary said. But Kingler was in such pain it couldn't move. Its defeat, at this point, was inevitable.

Gary recalled Kingler and pulled out his final Poké Ball. "Arcanine, I choose you!" A large dog with a magnificent mane appeared. "Arcanine, use Fire Blast!" Arcanine opened its mouth a launched a fire attack that formed into what Bastion recognized as the Japanese symbol for fire. The attack went for Water Dragon.

When the attack hit, white steam was released upon impact. Gary tried looking through the smoke. He saw Water Dragon still active. Fire Blast had done nothing to it.

"Did you think that would work?" Bastion said. "Water Dragon reduces all fire attacks to nothing, since it is made of pure water."

"I kinda figured that," Gary said. Bastion looked at him with surprise. "But my aim wasn't to beat it, just make it blind. Arcanine, use Extreme Speed!" Arcanine sped into the dense fog. Gary waited for the result. Soon the steam lifted and Gary saw Arcanine… inside Water Dragon's body!

"That was a useless tactic," Bastion insulted.

"Shows what you know," Gary returned. "Arcanine, use Hyper Beam!" The dog Pokémon began to charge its attack. There was nowhere for Water Dragon to avoid the attack. After about three seconds of charging, there was an explosion. Arcanine managed to jump out of the blast before any serious damage was done. The only thing that was damaged was Bastion's life points, down to 1000.

Gary's turn was now over, but the smoke had not yet cleared. Bastion wasn't able to do anything until he could see what he was doing. Soon the smoke cleared and Gary met an unpleasant sight; the two Hydrogeddons and Oxygeddon were back.

"If Water Dragon is destroyed," Bastion explained, "it reverts to its original forms." Bastion drew his card, which he was sure would be his last. He wasted no time in attacking Arcanine. "Double Hydro Gust!" Arcanine jumped out of the way of the Hydrogeddons' attacks, but just barely; they still did some minor damage.

"Hey, Bastion," Gary said out of the blue. "You want to know what I find interesting about water?" When Bastion didn't answer, thinking Gary was losing it, Gary said, "It's a compound which isn't flammable made up of two elements that are."

Bastion thought Gary was just babbling and decided to finish the battle. "Hyozanryu, Diamond Flame!" Hyozanryu aimed its attack at Arcanine.

"Extreme Speed," Gary said. Arcanine ran away from the attack to the back of Oxygeddon.

"Oxygeddon, Sonic Screech!" Bastion yelled.

"Flamethrower attack!" Gary countered.

Both creatures launched their attacks at each other. Arcanine's Flamethrower shot right through the sonic waves. The flames barely touched Oxygeddon's body before he exploded in a ball of fire.

Arcanine was blown back several yards, but it was Bastion who took the biggest hit; 1000 life points worth, leaving him with none. "Wow, that did a lot more than I thought it would," Gary said.

"When Oxygeddon is destroyed by a fire attack," Bastion said, "it deals 800 points of direct damage to both sides. In other words…" Bastion shut down his duel disk… "this battle is over."

Gary returned Arcanine. "I must say," Bastion said to him, "I am surprised with how you handled the new battling style. You have an intelligence that rivals my own. You seemed to know what would work, especially at the end."

"I'll admit it was a bit of a surprise," Gary said, "but once Oxygeddon was on the field, I knew it could be defeated using fire, since oxygen is highly reactive to the stuff."

"I see now why you brought up that fact earlier," Bastion said. The two shook hands before they heard a loud rumble.

* * *

"Time for my best Pokémon," May said to herself, but loud enough so Jaden could hear. "Blaziken, I choose you!" Blaziken's form appeared on the field. Jaden was impressed by the flame Pokémon's physique; it looked like a real match for the Elemental Heroes.

"Use Blaze Kick!" Blaziken jumped up and put its foot down towards Clayman. It lit up with fire as it fell. The foot struck Clayman and knocked him back. "Now use Sky Uppercut!" Blaziken landed and ran to Clayman. It put its hand close to the ground as it ran. When the two opponents were right next to each other, Blaziken brought its hand upward and sent Clayman up a few yards.

Clayman's body crashed on the ground before disappearing. "Nice work, May," Jaden said. "I activate the trap card Hero Signal." A beacon of light with an artistic "H" lit up in the canopy. "When you destroy my Elemental Hero, I can summon another. And I summon Elemental Hero Bubbleman." The Elemental Hero appeared and was ready for action.

Jaden's next turn began. "Now I play Elemental Hero Avian in attack mode." Avian appeared with his wings outstretched. May secretly began to worry; both heroes were related to Pokémon types that Blaziken was weak against. "Now I'll play Bubble Blaster, increasing Bubbleman's attack by 800." A handheld projectile weapon appeared in the hero's hand.

"Now let's put it to the test," Jaden said. "Bubble Shot!" Bubbleman raised his weapon and shot a stream of bubbles at Blaziken. The bubbles hit the Pokémon and caused extreme damage.

"Blaziken, jump!" May shouted. Blaziken used what strength it had and lifted itself in the air. But it was to be met with surprise when it saw Avian right in front of it.

"Avian, use Featherbreak," Jaden called out. Avian spread its wings and flew past Blaziken, swiping his wing across it in the process. Blaziken fell to the ground hard.

"Quick, Flamethrower counterattack!" May shouted.

Jaden activated one of his facedowns just as Blaziken launched the flames: Draining Shield. The spherical barrier appeared around Avian. The flames seemed to be absorbed by the shield.

"Draining Shield is the perfect recovery move," Jaden said. "It protects my monsters and raises my life points." Jaden's life points did indeed rise to 1800.

"Now I play three spell cards," Jaden said, "the first being Monster Reborn to summon my Burstinatrix back onto the field." Burstinatrix reappeared in a blaze of fire. "Next I play Monster Reincarnation. By discarding a card from my hand, I can summon a monster back from the graveyard. And I choose Clayman." Clayman's bulky figure was once again on the field. "Finally I play Polymerization, fusing all four Elemental Heroes into one: Elemental Hero Electrum!"

The four heroes started spinning wildly, swirling into a single mass. When it was over, a large figure came up on the field wearing armor made of light.

"But, since I already attacked," Jaden said, "my turn is over."

May commanded Blaziken to use Blaze Kick. Blaziken jumped up and aimed its fiery foot at Electrum. The force of the kick pushed him back only scant centimeters, but still caused him damage and obvious discomfort. "One more attack should finish him," May said to herself. "Do another one!" May yelled. Blaziken jumped up for the win.

"I activate my trap card Miracle Kids!" Jaden suddenly said. May looked in amazement as the three Hero Kids appeared on the field in a ghostly form. They surrounded Blaziken on all sides before digging their fists into it. It stopped Blaziken short of its goal.

"Flamethrower, Blaziken," May commanded. Blaziken shot out a stream of fire headed for Electrum. But the flames seemed to die down as they got further away. By the time they hit Electrum, they might as well have been an Ember attack.

"When I play Miracle Kids," Jaden said, "all Hero Kids in the graveyard reduce your attack power. It's all dependent on the number of kids."

Jaden drew his card and played it. "I play the field card Skyscraper!" A city skyline appeared on the field, with Electrum towering above it. Blaziken jumped on one of the buildings to get a better view of its opponent. "There's something you should know before I go on," Jaden said. "Electrum is a unique monster with capabilities of light, fire, water, earth, and air attributes. For every one of my opponents who shares one of these attributes, like your Blaziken's fire, Electrum gains 300 attack points."

May thought about what Jaden said. _If that's true, then this stadium can't be just for kicks. I'll bet it raises his attacks even more. I'll have to counter with a stronger move._

"Now, Electrum, Elemental Radiant Burst!" Jaden yelled. Electrum began to glow brilliantly.

May quickly called out, "Blaziken, Overheat!" Blaziken glowed a deep red before letting out a powerful fire attack.

"Bad idea, May," Jaden said. May became worried. "In this Skyscraper field, if your attack is stronger than mine, Electrum gains 1000 attack points." Electrum started glowing brighter. May had to shield her eyes to prevent herself from going blind. The attack from Overheat began to decrease until it evaporated from view.

Soon, the light disappeared. May peeked through her fingers to see what happened. Blaziken was lying on its back intense pain. Jaden said, "Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like I win."

May returned Blaziken to its Poké Ball. She approached Jaden as he shut off the power to his duel disk. The two looked at each other for a while. At first, Jaden thought that May was going to do something bad to him. But instead, she smiled and put her hand forward. "Nice going Jaden," she said. "It's not easy for someone who fights with power to break through contest moves."

"Well," Jaden said, "I figured if I could make my moves more powerful, those combos would be pretty much useless." He took May's hand in his own. Just then, they heard an explosion coming Ash and Yugi's battle site.

* * *

Ash waited desperately for the smoke to lift. As he watched carefully for any sign of Pikachu, he turned to find the others returning from their battles with their respective competitors. The trainers went to Ash's side while the duelists went behind Yugi, both groups cheering them on.

On the sidelines, Jessie was also waiting for the result. "Do you think the twerp has a chance?"

"If you're talking about Ash," Kaiba said, "I wouldn't bet on it."

Syrus turned to the rest. "That's true. Where we come from, Yugi's pretty much a legend."

"Is he that good?" Dawn asked.

Chazz kept his focus on the battle as he said, "I defy anyone to usurp his title as the King of Games." ("But I could probably beat him anyway," he added to himself.)

Soon the smoke began to clear. Ash and Yugi stared deeply onto the field. At last, they could make out what happened. Dark Paladin was still standing. Beside him, Pikachu was, miraculously, also standing! The surprise was even greater as they saw Paladin's sword in two pieces: the hilt in his hand and the blade in the ground.

"What?" said a shocked Yugi. "How is this possible?"

Ash, very curious for a moment, asked, "Why don't you tell me what the connection is between my Charizard and that Dark Paladin?"

Yugi, for a second, struggled to get the words out. "For every Dragon type monster on the field or in each player's graveyard, Dark Paladin is supposed to gain 500 attack points." Ash looked at Paladin, then Yugi, then Pikachu. Finally, he smiled and laughed. "What's so funny?" Yugi asked.

"Although we have a Pokémon type called the dragon type," Ash said, "Charizard is a fire type that only _looks_ like a dragon." Yugi seemed taken aback.

"Now it's my turn!" Ash said triumphantly. "Pikachu, use Agility!" Pikachu started running at a fast pace around Paladin. With its speed built up, Pikachu launched into the air. "Volt Tackle!" Ash yelled. A violent electric field surrounded Pikachu's body. "Pika-pika-pika-pika-pika…" Pikachu was mere inches away from hitting Paladin. "Pi-KA!" Pikachu landed on Paladin, causing another explosion.

When the smoke cleared, Pikachu was standing alone; Dark Paladin was nowhere to be found. Yugi checked his life points; they dwindled down to zero.

Pikachu ran over to Ash climbed up into to his waiting arms. Ash embraced the electric mouse. "Congratulations, Pikachu." "Pikachu!"

"I suppose I should offer my congratulations to you as well," Yugi's voice said. Ash turned to face his opponent. "You are a skilled battler and I can't imagine that anyone who can defeat you isn't met with a challenge first."

"You're not a bad battler yourself, Yugi," Ash returned. "That strategy is amazing, and I'll bet it will help in the battle against Atrocity." Both Ash and Yugi lifted their hands toward each other, clasping them together.

"Well done, warriors," Master said. "Indeed, both your individual techniques and styles will make all the difference in the battles before you. However…" Everyone stopped. "I noted on one flaw in this battle. Duelists, although your use of a turn-based system was ingenious, you must learn to battle without it. The Atrocity will not be gracious enough to give you the time you may need. You must learn to fight quickly and decisively."

With this, both groups prepared to part. But Yugi had one last thing to say. "Ash." Ash turned to face him. "Although we all come from different worlds, we are very similar to each other. We have the ability to control the most fearsome and amazing creatures, and they all fit in the palm of our hand."

"Yeah," Ash said, "I guess you're right. Good luck to you guys in your next battle."

"And good luck to you, as well," Yugi said. From there, the two groups went their separate ways.

**Now before I close for the week, I'm sure many of you aren't happy with Ash's victory. "C'mon, Yugi could've smoked Ash. His monsters are _so_ much more powerful than that puny Pikachu." Blah, blah, blah. Two reasons: One, I don't like Yu-Gi-Oh! Anyone who has read my profile recently will tell you that. Two, the fact that Ash could win doesn't receive a lot of good press. e.g. I keep seeing this picture that is Yugi-centric with Yugi and Slifer staring down on a more-than-nervous Ash and Pikachu. Very opinionated to the point that says, "Ash vs. Yugi=bug vs. shoe." If you don't like the results, I've got 3 words for you:**

**Deal with it!**

**Also, as I already mentioned at the start, there may be a few discrepancies here and there. Since i don't watch Yu-Gi-Oh!, there might be a few OOC stuff and other false information. If anyone reading this knows of any, I'd appreciate the info for future chapters.**

**Next week: Dinosaur King vs. MegaMan NTWarrior!**


	9. R1B2 Impossible!

**As promised, Dinosaur King vs. MegaMan NTWarrior. I'll be honest; when it comes to MegaMan, my knowledge of the _Stream_ season is fuzzy at best. I think I got the basic details, but I've only watched the first five episodes (I'm having a hard time finding subbed episodes).**

**Disclaimer-I don't own either anime, nor any of the others in this fic for that matter.**

**Round 1**

**Battle 2-Impossible!**

Max and his friends continued walking, following the enormous footsteps yards ahead of them. "Do you really think they'll find anything riding on Terry's back?" he asked.

"Well, we have no other plans," Rex pointed out, "so until then, we'll have to go with the old lady on this one."

Meanwhile, on Terry's back, Ursula was shouting, "That's gratitude for you! Even when they acknowledge my genius, they still insist on calling me that!"

Zander was ignoring Ursula. He was focused on looking for anything strange or interesting. Soon, he found something that fit both descriptions. "Terry, stop!" he said.

Everyone on the T-Rex suddenly jerked forward at the sudden stop. "What was that for?" Ed said weakly. Zander pointed at a large building about thirty degrees off from Terry's direction.

Soon they heard a voice coming from below. "Hey!" It was the D-Team. "We heard Terry stop," Max said. "Did you guys find anything?"

"We did," said Ursula, "but I think its best you see for yourselves."

"I'll go up and take a look," Zoe said. Terry put his tail to the ground so Zoe could climb up. Carrying Paris in her pouch, she ran along Terry's tail to where the Alpha Gang sat. She looked in the direction Zander was pointing.

"What do you see?" Rex shouted.

"It looks like a building of some kind," Zoe shouted back. She slid back down with the rest of the Alpha Gang.

"The Master said that he was the only one who lived here," Max said.

"So how much do you want to bet that it's where our first opponents are?" Zander asked rhetorically. With that, after calling Terry back to his card (under the reasoning that whoever was in there would've fainted first), they all ran over to the mysterious building.

* * *

"Dad, any luck yet?" Lan asked.

"Not yet, Lan," Hikari said. "I'll try increasing the range a bit."

Everyone was starting to suspect that simply walking around might be a much better idea than scanning for their first target. They had been at this for almost fifteen minutes and still nothing.

Suddenly, Hikari said, "I've found something!" Everyone gathered around him.

"What's up, Dr. Hikari?" Chaud asked.

"I have ten life forms just a little more than a mile from here," Hikari said. Everyone looked at the screen and found ten blips. What surprised them was that one of them was much larger than the others. Then, just as sudden as it appeared, the largest blip vanished.

Maylu was the one to ask, "What happened there?"

"I'm not sure, Maylu," Hikari said. "Remember, we're dealing with forces we've never seen or even heard of before."

"Let's go guys," Lan said. "If they're coming here, we better be there to meet them." Chaud, Maylu, and Rush nodded before following Lan out of the building.

As they ran down to the entryway, they could hear Hikari's voice say, "All hands, prepare to initiate the dimensional area generators."

* * *

Both the D-Team and the Alpha Gang made their way to the mysterious building. When they finally reached it, they simply stood there, not knowing what to do next.

"Let's just go inside," Zander suggested.

"That wouldn't be a good idea," Rex pointed out. "If our first opponents are in there, one room in that building won't even be able to hold Ace." Ace growled in agreement.

Ursula looked around at many of the building's features. "So what do you think this place is?" Max asked her.

She answered, "I've been around Zeta Point long enough to know that this is a science lab of some kind." She pointed up to the roof, where various radar dishes. "Either this place has excellent TV reception or those dishes could be used to pick up or send out energy signatures."

Suddenly, one of the doors opened. Three teenaged people came out along with what appeared to be a dog. One of them, who was wearing a headband with a strange design and obviously the leader, said, "So you must be who we saw on our scanners."

Max stepped forward, trying to be as calm as his looks suggested. "My name is Max Taylor," he said with confidence, "leader of the D-Team." He pointed behind himself to the others. "These are my friends, Zoe and Rex. The adults make up the Alpha Gang: Ed, Zander and the old lady."

"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Ursula yelled angrily. "If you're going to introduce me, just call me Ursula!"

After recovering from the shock, the leader from the other group said, "I'm Lan Hikari, and these two are Chaud and Maylu." The dog-like creature barked. "Oh, and Rush."

"Don't forget us," a voice said. It sounded almost computerized. Lan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a handheld video game console. Chaud and Maylu did the same. Lan showed Max the side that contained a screen. On that screen was a person. "Hi, I'm MegaMan. Pleased to meet you Max Taylor." Max looked up at the other two and saw that they too had similar humanoid figures in their devices, who introduced themselves as Roll and ProtoMan.

"What are those things?" Rex asked.

"These are called Personal Terminals," Maylu said, "or PET for short."

"I think he's talking about the little people inside them," Ed pointed out.

"They're called NetNavis," Chaud said, "which is short for Internet Navigators."

"Internet?" Zoe asked. "You mean these guys can travel through cyberspace?"

"Not just travel," MegaMan said, "we live in a world within computers."

"That's amazing," Zander said. "You guys must be pretty advanced. Not even the technology on Zeta Point is this good."

"Our whole society thrives on computers," ProtoMan said. "Without one world, the other would soon fail."

Lan turned their attention to Chomp. "That's a pretty interesting dog you have there. And this is coming from a guy who lives with a dog straight out of the Cyberworld." Chomp returned the compliment by biting Lan's nose.

"Sorry, Chomp has a habit of doing that sometimes," Max said. He grabbed Chomp and pulled him off of Lan.

"Good name for it," Lan said while rubbing his nose. Suddenly, he heard a beeping sound.

"Lan, its Dad," MegaMan reported.

"'Dad?'" Zoe asked.

"Lan's father is the director of SciLab here," Maylu explained, motioning toward the building.

Dr. Hikari's voice came in over the PET communication link. "Lan, I've scanned that 'dog's' DNA, and it seems to be closer to a Triceratops." Everyone was pretty shocked about this, but that wasn't all. "I also scanned the other two creatures. The one next to Rex appears to be a Carnotaurus while the one in Zoe's pouch is a Parasaurolophus."

"You mean, actual dinosaurs?" Lan asked in surprise. "How in the world did you get living dinosaurs?"

"By accident, really," Max said. "I'm not sure how, but all we know is when we found them, they were just cards."

Lan became confused. "What do you mean by 'cards?'"

"Well," Ursula came forward, "kind of like the one I hold in my hand." Lan looked at the object she was holding. It looked like a trading card of some kind and it had the image of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on it.

"So what you're saying," Chaud concluded, "is that these dinosaurs can turn into cards?"

"It's how we do our fighting," Max said. "When we swipe the cards across our Dino Holders…" "…or Alpha Scanners." Ed interrupted, holding his. Max went on, "…they can turn into their large, life size versions."

"Mind if we check them out?" MegaMan asked. After getting a somewhat hesitant "Yes," Lan and Chaud aimed their PETs at Max's holder and Ed's scanner. "Jack-in!" they both shouted. A laser shot out of the end facing the devices and hit them.

"What was that about?" Zoe asked.

"We just sent them into the systems to see how they work," Lan explained. Lan pulled up the PET's holo-screen which showed an image of MegaMan. "Well, what do you make of it?" he asked.

MegaMan was inside Max's Dino Holder. "This is pretty impressive. All the systems seem to be hooked around a central object: a stone, I think."

"A stone?" Lan said puzzled.

"Yeah, it's definitely a stone," MegaMan confirmed. "It looks like it has some connection with electricity. Whether or not any electric currents power the device is still unclear."

"I'm getting the same thing in this 'Alpha Scanner,'" ProtoMan said. Chaud activated his holo-screen so they could all see. "The systems appear to be almost identical with the Dino Holder, except the stone in here seems to have some correlation with earth, and I mean more so than stones normally would."

"Those stones are what give the dinosaurs their power," Ursula explained. "Each dinosaur has a connection with a different stone and will only assume its physical form when the card is exposed to the corresponding stone."

Roll interjected, "I think we'll learn about how this whole thing works out if we start the battle now."

Chaud returned ProtoMan to his PET. "The rules for this should be simple enough," He said. "Just keep fighting until one side runs out of energy."

"And just to make things interesting," Max added, "we'll do it from right here, right next to this building."

"Very well, warriors," Master's voice boomed. "The opponent pairings will consist of the following: Max and Lan, Zoe and Maylu, and Ursula and Chaud. Battlers, take your position on a different side of the building. Those who are left, remove yourselves from the field. Keep going in a straight line behind you until I tell you to stop."

"We may need Ace's help for that," Rex said. He took out his Dino Holder and pressed one of the buttons. Ace disappeared in a blue streak that flew into Rex's hand and turned into a card. Rex then slid the card across his holder. Within a few seconds, a full sized Carnotaurus appeared. "Zander, Ed, get on." All three of them climbed on Ace's back. Ace started to run with all three holding on tight.

After more than five seconds of running, Ace heard Master say, "Stop!" Ace came to a grinding halt.

Meanwhile in the SciLab main terminal, Dr. Hikari heard the Master say, "This will be the radius."

Hikari immediately understood. "Activate the dimensional area generators."

Max heard a noise coming from above. He look up and saw a rainbow colored grid of hexagons forming over them. Soon the grid extended to the ground, covering them in a dome.

"What's going on here?" Zoe asked. Max noticed that she seemed pretty upset. "Do you really think we were going to just run away?"

"Chill out," Lan said. "This is a dimensional area, where the real world and the Cyberworld meet."

"So those NetNavi things can get here?" Ursula asked.

"Sort of…" Chaud said vaguely. He led Ursula to the south end of SciLab and soon, the others followed suit in their own directions. No questions were asked about Chaud's last response.

Max and Zoe returned their dinosaurs into card form while Ursula already had her card out. Lan and Chaud pulled out devices that looked like computer chips. Rush stood next to Maylu. Soon, they heard the Master's voice start the countdown.

"Three…" Dinosaur cards were positioned. "Two…" The chips were placed next to the PETs while Rush bent down. "One… start the battle!"

"Dino Slash!" Max yelled. "Go, Triceratops, roar!" Chomp appeared for a short time before he started to change. His legs grew longer to accommodate for his new, larger size. His horns elongated and a spark of lightning shone in his eyes. He reared up and roared with an air of power.

While Chomp did his transforming, Lan was going through some changes of his own. "Synchro Chip in, download!" He placed the computer chip inside the PET and it began to glow. Lan and MegaMan yelled, "Begin Cross Fusion!" The PET seemed to explode into tiny bits. Soon those bits surrounded Lan's hands and feet, forming gloves and boots. More bits attached to his back, forming a backpack of some kind. The remaining bits came together to form a circle that Max noticed to be the same design on Lan's headband. The design attached itself to Lan's chest and created a white light that tightly surrounded his form. When it dissipated, Lan was covered in blue, skintight fabric. A helmet formed on his head as well as a face plate covering his mouth. Lan struck a battle pose signifying he was ready.

"Is that MegaMan?" Max asked dumbfounded.

"Not exactly," Lan's voice said. Max was half expecting to hear MegaMan's voice. "This is what's known as Cross Fusion. Basically, the NetNavi fuses with its controller, creating a mixed form between the two."

"I suppose it is easier than sending Chomp into cyberspace," Max said to himself. Chomp charged in on Lan. Just as he was about to run over him, Lan jumped up high and avoided the attack. Chomp slowed to a stop as Lan landed.

"Mega Buster!" Lan yelled. His right hand transformed into an arm cannon. He fired several shots at the Triceratops. Unfortunately for Lan, Chomp's thick hide resisted any damage. Surprised, he changed tactics. "Cyber Sword, battlechip in, download!" Lan's hand transformed once again, this time into a blade. He ran towards Chomp.

"Chomp, block it!" Max yelled. Chomp turned with surprising speed, just in time to meet Lan's sword with one of his horns. Max held up his holder and revealed his card pack. One of the cards flew up and landed in his hand. "Electric Charge!" Max swiped the card against the holder.

Lan noticed that Chomp was beginning to glow. Soon, that glow went to his horns in the form of electricity, coming together to form a ball. Lan was too close to the horn to avoid the ball and was immediately drawn inside it. Lan managed to get back out, partly because he was tossed out by the attack's power.

"Oh, my head," Lan said to himself. "MegaMan said that stone had electricity in it; just didn't think it could do that."

* * *

Rush jumped up the minute the Master said, "Start the battle." He twisted in the air and transformed into something. Zoe couldn't see what because a bright light accompanied the transformation. When the transformed Rush landed in Maylu's hand, Zoe saw that he had turned into a computer chip not unlike the ones Lan and Chaud had.

"Rush Synchro Chip in, download!" Maylu placed the chip into her PET and it began to shine. In unison Maylu and Roll yelled, "Begin Cross Fusion!" The PET exploded into digital bits which covered her hands and feet and formed a circle with a heart inside it. The circle stuck to Maylu's chest and a bright light tightly covered her body. It dissipated to reveal a dress made of pink material. A long, red stream of hair started flowing down her back until it reached her thighs. Her head was fitted with a helmet and long streamers similar to Roll's. Maylu struck a pose and was ready for battle.

Zoe completely lost track of what was going on. She was more focused on Maylu's transformation that she forgot that Paris' card was still in her hand. Still, she put it off for just a little while longer to ask, "What happened?"

"This is Cross Fusion," Maylu quickly explained, "the fusing of a NetNavi with their operator. Rush can turn into a special Synchro Chip that not only lets me Cross Fuse, but also lets me borrow his powers."

Zoe was still wondering what was going on, but she had her own things to worry about. She held up Paris' card and swiped it across the Dino Holder. "Dino Slash! Spring up, Parasaurolophus!" Paris' hind legs grew longer. Her crest extended to the size of her face, which had also grown. As her eyes glowed, green petals seemed to flash out of them. Paris called out loudly, starting the battle.

Maylu started things out with Roll Blast. Several hearts formed out of nowhere and started bombarding Paris. Paris was hit hard, trying to dodge the hearts as they came at her.

"It's all right, Paris," Zoe encouraged. Paris regained her strength and charged at Maylu, with her crest pointed low and facing forward. Maylu barely got out of the way in time. But Paris didn't give up easily, as she turned around and charged again.

Maylu held up her hand. "Rush Hole!" A hole as large as Paris appeared out of nowhere. Paris, still running toward Maylu, didn't see it in time and inadvertently ran into it. The hole disappeared.

Zoe gasped. "What happened to Paris?" she demanded.

Maylu held up her other hand and said, "Right here." Another hole similar to the one that trapped Paris appeared. Zoe was relieved to see Paris run out of it, but not as relieved when she found out where Paris was headed: right into the wall of SciLab.

"Hang on, Paris," Zoe said, pulling out her card pack. "Help's on the way." A card flew into her hand and she swiped it across the holder. "Big Foot Assault!" Paris made a loud call. Maylu felt something like a tremor and looked up. A large foot was coming down on her.

"Area Steal!" she yelled quickly. She disappeared from view just as the foot came down. When she reappeared, she was still shaken up by the impact from the foot's landing. Since she was a safe distance from it, she looked up to see what the foot belonged to: a dinosaur so big, part of it penetrated the dimensional area.

"What is that?" she said in astonishment.

"If I had to guess," Roll said, "I'd say it was a Seismosaurus."

"That would explain the earthquake," she said to herself before her hand transformed into a Roll Arrow technique. She fired her shot at the giant legs without much avail. To make matters worse, Paris managed to get behind her. Maylu felt the sting of the dinosaur's tail as it slapped her against the leg she was shooting.

"Two dinosaurs?" Maylu said. "I was having a hard time beating one."

* * *

"Alpha Slash!" Ursula swiped Terry's card across the Alpha Scanner. "Blaze, Tyrannosaurus!" Terry appeared in his younger form, but to Chaud, it was still pretty ominous. The young Tyrannosaurus almost looked like a demon surrounded by fire. Things only looked worse as the hind legs grew longer. The tail, as it grew, looked like it could topple SciLab with one swing. The dinosaur's eyes burned with fire and it roared, almost chilling Chaud despite the heat he felt.

Maintaining his composure, he yelled "Synchro Chip in, download!" he placed the chip into the PET and it started to glow. Chaud held it in front of him before yelling, in unison with ProtoMan, "Begin Cross Fusion!" The PET exploded and started covering Chaud's hands and feet. A symbol was formed and stuck to his chest. His body started glowing until it faded to black. His head was covered in a helmet and his hair grew longer in the back. Chaud made a final pose when the transformation was complete.

Ursula looked at him and said, "So this is what you meant earlier: it's ProtoMan, but not actually ProtoMan."

"Yeah, it's called Cross Fusion," Chaud said. "And it allows me to borrow ProtoMan's powers, such as… Boomerang, battlechip in, download!" Chaud's arm transformed into a launcher and fired a boomerang shaped object at Terry. The boomerang began circle Terry's head like a mosquito. The T-Rex began snapping its huge jaws at it, trying to stop it from annoying him.

Meanwhile, down below, Chaud called out, "Long Sword, battlechip in, download!" his arm changed again to sport a blade where his hand would've been. Chaud ran toward Terry and suddenly stopped. Ursula noted that Chaud was several feet away from Terry.

"You're not going to do much to my Tyrannosaurus from there you know," she said, hoping to provoke Chaud into coming closer.

"Only a fool would dare get too close to that thing," Chaud returned.

"Then what's the point of the sword?" Ursula continued.

"It isn't called _Long _Sword for nothing," Chaud answered. From where he stood, he raised the sword and swung it downward. For a second, Ursula thought the sword grew longer. Whatever the case, the sword manage to cause some harm to Terry, who was more concerned about the boomerang flying around his head.

Angered, Terry charged at Chaud. "Landmine, battlechip in!" he yelled. Nothing happened. Terry kept running until he felt an explosion under his feet, knocking him off balance.

As Terry was getting up, Ursula shouted, "How did you do that?" with a sense of annoyance.

"What, you didn't hear me yell 'Landmine?'" Chaud taunted.

Ursula became angry now. She pulled out one of her move cards. "Volcano Burst!" she yelled. Terry started to glow as a well of fire appeared in his mouth. He lowered himself in Chaud's direction and sprayed the fire out of his mouth.

Chaud simply stood there almost as though he was unaware of what was going on. Ursula noticed that he was smiling. The flames surrounded his body and caused intense pain. Or they would have, as an extremely odd sight met Ursula's eyes. Chaud's body started to go limp, except "limp" wasn't the right word; his body transformed into something reminiscent of a rag doll. It fell to the ground before it disappeared.

"Does this mean we won?" Ursula questioned.

"Not quite," she heard above her. She looked to find Chaud standing on Terry's back.

"Wha… What's going on here?" Ursula asked.

"What you saw was the Body Double," Chaud answered. "It creates a copy of the NetNavi who uses it. That way, the real Navi is free to avoid attacks and carry out his strategy unnoticed." He smiled. "In a way, there are two dummies: the one that's being attacked, and the one attacking it."

Ursula growled in anger. "And what do you think you're going to do up there? You said you'd be a fool to get that close."

"Then allow me to rephrase," Chaud said. "Only a fool would get too close _unprepared_. And as to what am I doing up here? Right now, I'm leaving." He jumped off Terry's back. When he hit the ground, another explosion appeared, this time on Terry's back. The T-Rex lurched forward under the shock.

Ursula had a surprised look on her face. "Like it?" Chaud asked rhetorically. "It's called Time Boomer, for obvious reasons. I told you I was prepared."

* * *

"Well, at least now I know what the electricity is for," Lan said to himself as he got up. "Not that it does me any good." Lan was still shaken up from Chomp's Electric Charge attack.

"Wait, Lan," MegaMan said to him, "maybe it can do something." When Lan grunted inquisitively, MegaMan said, "Maybe we can find a way to use that electricity against him."

Lan caught up on MegaMan's suggestion almost right away; Chomp had powers over electricity and he had faced plenty of NetNavis with similar abilities. And one thing that could topple them was a wood element battle chip. Lan yelled, "Bamboo Lance, battlechip in, download!" Several sharp bamboo chutes sprung out of the ground, surrounding Chomp.

Chomp stood there looking at one of the chutes. The next thing Lan knew, Chomp had bitten into it, tearing it off and seemingly eating it.

Lan could hear MegaMan saying to him, "Lan, what were you expecting with that idea?"

"For him not to be part panda, that's what," Lan answered. "Don't worry, he's still trapped. Bamboo Sword!" Lan's hand transformed into another sword; this one had a yellow-green tint to it. Lan jumped up over the Triceratops and pointed the sword downward. The sword struck the dinosaur's skin and Lan heard a roar that suggested pain.

Chomp quickly charged at the circle of bamboo trapping him. The chutes, unable to take the stress, disappeared in a way that Max could only refer to as digitized, as each chute separated into cubes before dissolving. Chomp broke out of his prison and turned to face Lan.

Max pulled out another card. "Lightning Strike!" He swiped the card through the holder. Lan noticed that Chomp started to glow again.

"Lan, move!" MegaMan yelled to his NetOp.

"Like you have to tell me that?" Lan asked, not wanting to deal with a repeat of what happened last time. He turned and ran away from the glowing Triceratops.

"Running won't help you this time," Max said confidently. Lan turned to find Chomp's lightning coming between his horns like last time. However, he noticed something different about it. Lan soon figured out what: Chomp was firing a lightning bolt straight at him.

As quick as he could, Lan yelled, "Anti-Electricity!" A lightning rod of some kind appeared in front of him, absorbing the electricity flowing to him. "Now have a taste of your own medicine!" The rod began to glow. Suddenly, it shot the electricity back to Chomp. The lightning hit Chomp and he was blown backwards.

"All right, now to finish this up," Lan said with confidence.

"I couldn't agree more," Max said with confidence to rival Lan's. He activated his card pack again and another card flew into his hand.

* * *

Paris lowered her head and attempted to charge at Maylu again. Maylu looked around to see if there was anything she could use, but all she could see was the Seismosaurus behind her. "Well," she said, "when in Rome…" She jumped up just as Paris was about to strike.

Paris grinded to a halt before she hit the Seismosaurus' leg. She looked around to see where Maylu had run off to. "Hey," she heard, "up here!" Paris looked up to find Maylu standing on the Seismosaurus' back. Unfortunately for Maylu, the Seismosaurus also noticed. The large dinosaur attempted to brush her off using his neck.

"Yo-yo, battlechip in, download!" Maylu's arm transformed into a strange device. She positioned her arm at the Seismosaurus' neck. The device opened and let out a yo-yo that wrapped around the neck. Maylu jumped off the back and swung on the string over the dinosaur's head.

"Uh, uh, uh," Zoe said cautiously, "not too high." She pulled out another card from her pack. "Metal Wing!" she yelled. Paris made a loud cry. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, three Pteranodons swooped down and sliced through the string with their wings. Maylu quickly righted herself for a landing, but another Pteranodon struck her. She fell with her face to the ground.

She looked up and said to herself, "Let's see, one Parasaurolophus, one Seismosaurus, and three Pteranodons. What else can go wrong?"

Suddenly, she heard Roll's voice saying, "Maylu, I think there's something you should know." When Maylu asked what, Roll continued, "The Seismosaurus and Pteranodons seem to be drawing their power from Paris."

"So what are you saying, Roll?" Maylu asked.

"Let me put it to you this way: those dinosaurs are similar to viruses. Put in the right chip and a virus will help you." She waited for a few seconds. "Does that help?"

"A little," Maylu said as she was getting up, "but it doesn't help me beat these things."

"That's just it, you don't have to," Roll said. "If you can just defeat Paris, the others will be defeated as well." Maylu couldn't argue with that logic, but there was still a problem; the other dinosaurs weren't exactly too thrilled with letting Maylu even come close to Paris.

That's when Maylu had an idea. "All right, Zoe," she said, "you called in your friends, now it's time for you to meet some of mine." Another hole appeared on the ground in front of her. Suddenly, three creatures flew out of the hole. They looked like a cross between kites and fish. "Meet the Fishy viruses," Maylu said. "Don't blink, 'cause you might miss them." The three Fishies immediately sped off in the direction of the Pteranodons. The flying reptiles dodged swiftly, but the viruses turned around and attacked again.

While the Pteranodons were occupied with the Fishies competing for air control, Maylu turned to Paris. "Now that your friends are busy…" she started but was soon interrupted by a large noise; the Seismosaurus was moving its leg toward Maylu again. "MetGuard, battlechip in!" A large construction hardhat appeared and surrounded Maylu's body. The Seismosaurus brought its leg down on the hat but was immediately repulsed, possibly because of the pain the MetGuard inflicted in retaliation.

The hat disappeared and Maylu turned to Paris. "Now, where was I?" she said. "Oh, yeah. Aqua Tower, battlechip in, download!" She opened her hand and slammed it to the ground. Suddenly, Zoe saw a jet of water spring upward. The weird thing was that the tower of water was moving toward Paris.

Paris didn't know how to fight against a moving tower of water. In her hesitation, the tower collided with her, forcing her upward. She dropped back down to the ground with a crash. Zoe noticed that her Dino Holder was indicating that Paris was running out of energy. "Looks like we'd better finish this, and now."

* * *

Ursula was starting to piece together exactly what Chaud was doing. Terry may have the edge when it comes to power, but Chaud was beating him through use of carefully thought out strategy. Since Terry relied on power and strength, and because he was so huge, Chaud was outmaneuvering and out-battling him every step of the way.

After Terry recovered from the Time Boomer's blast, Ursula said, "All right, brat, let's see how you like this." She pulled out another card. "Tail Smash!" Terry started glowing again, but Chaud noticed there was something different about it, but in a subtle way. Terry ran up to him and turned. Chaud noticed that as he was turning around, his tail was coming right at him. There was no time to get away from the impact, smacking him to the wall of SciLab.

"Yes!" Ursula shouted. "That's one hit for me. Do it again, Terry." The dinosaur swung its tail at Chaud again. This time though, he jumped out of the way to the top of the building. The tail swung directly at the wall Chaud was flung to earlier. He looked down and saw Terry's massive tail penetrating the wall. _I knew that thing could topple SciLab,_ he thought, _but I didn't want to see it._

"Hey, Watch it!" he yelled to Ursula. "This building is important!"

"Listen, we battle in all kinds of different fields; a cityscape and buildings is no different." Terry swung at the wall again. Ursula watched as Chaud fell from the shockwave of the impact. She pulled out a new card. "Neck Crusher!"

Terry roared as he started glowing yet again. Chaud landed on the dinosaur's back, but was thrown to his tail. Terry lifted it up and smacked it against Chaud's back. It was so much pain, Chaud thought it was close to broken. He landed face down on the ground.

He grunted as he got up, "Interesting name, _Neck_ Crusher."

"Actually, because dinosaurs are so big," Ursula said, "the attack usually aims at the neck or the area below the head."

"Alright," Chaud said to himself, "time to get serious. ProtoMan, you ready?"

"I was ready to bring this guy down last week," ProtoMan answered.

* * *

"Wow, these guys are pretty good," Ed remarked. All three humans and Ace were outside the dimensional area, looking in on the combatants.

"I never expected anyone to take on a dinosaur head-on like that," Rex commented, "let alone do some actual damage."

"Looks like both sides have some sort of advantage," Zander said. "Our dinosaurs are large reptiles that could probably brush off anything, but these kids have powers that we can only dream about."

"Guess we can't judge our opponents," Rex reasoned, "just because they may be smaller than us."

* * *

"Lightning Spear!" Max yelled as the card passed through the holder. Chomp began to run toward Lan again, this time with lightning shooting straight out of his horns. But Lan noticed that it was only going so far before coming to a stop, leaving a staff of electricity coming from his horns. And with Chomp running toward him, Lan could only guess one thing: Chomp was going to impale him!

"Time to fight fire with fire. Electro Sword, battlechip in, download!" Lan's arm transformed into a sword with electricity surrounding the blade. Lan jumped toward the Triceratops coming at him and raised the sword. Chomp stopped and raised his electric lance to meet Lan's sword, which swung down into the lightning.

The power of the collided attacks was so great, it created a small explosion that knocked them both away. Chomp slid across the field leaving shallow trenches where he passed. Lan, however, bounced along the ground twice before coming to a stop. Lan lifted himself up, a little bruised, perhaps, but none the worse for wear. Lan lifted his sword at Chomp, ready to strike a final blow.

Max pulled out another move card. He yelled, "Thunder Bazooka!" Chomp jumped in the air, spinning sideways. Lightning surrounded his entire body as he headed for Lan.

Lan jumped up with his sword aimed at Chomp. The two competitors collided head-on in midair and stopped. Lan said to Chomp, "Know why I used this sword, buddy? Because I figured the electricity would sap yours. And I wouldn't want to be around if it absorbs too much."

Max heard everything Lan said and yelled back, in an attempt to save Chomp, "If that thing blows, you'll be too close to avoid damage."

"Don't worry about me," Lan said with confidence. "Barrier, battlechip in, download!" Lan was surrounded in a clear orb, except for his sword, which Max noticed was penetrating the barrier.

The explosion that Lan predicted occurred, surrounding him and his opponent in smoke. Soon, Chomp flew out of the smoke and toward the ground. Lan also appeared, landing feet first and in balance. Chomp, however, wasn't so lucky. He hit the ground with a thud before disappeared in a yellow flash. When the flash dissipated, Chomp was no longer visible. Instead, a simple card appeared and floated down to the ground.

Max ran up and grabbed the card. He ran it across the Dino Holder and Chomp appeared in his younger form. Lan walked up to them and asked, "Is Chomp going to be okay?"

Max turned and said, "If he ever loses, Chomp can recharge energy the same way humans can: by taking a well deserved rest. You know, you're pretty good. Is this how you fight all your battles?"

"Not exactly," Lan said as his MegaMan form broke down and reverted back into his PET. "Mostly they take place in the Cyberworld itself."

"I guess I should be thankful then," Max said. "I'd hate to have to send Chomp inside a world I can't even see."

* * *

Zoe looked up at Paris. Indeed, she was breathing heavily, showing signs of fatigue and running out of energy. Not only that, but both the Pteranodons and the Seismosaurus were suffering as well. If Roll was right, and the dinosaurs did in fact draw their energy from Paris, then Paris' energy loss was probably affecting them too.

Zoe looked through her cards. Out of the ones she had, the one that stood out to her the most was Nature's Blessing. Zoe realized she could use this card to restore the dinosaurs' strength.

Just as she reached for the card, she paused. She had never used the card to heal her move card dinosaurs before. _Will it actually work? What if it turns out to be a dud?_ She looked over at Maylu.

"Time to finish this up," she said. "Roll Arrow!" Maylu's arm transformed into the bow-shaped launcher once again. She began to charge the glowing projectile.

_This is no time to worry,_ Zoe thought to herself. _If it does turn out to be useless, at least I'll have the pleasure of losing knowing that I tried something._ She pulled out the card and brought it to the holder. "Nature's Blessing!" Mentally, she crossed her fingers.

A sphere of energy appeared in Paris' open mouth. Inside was swirling collection of leaves and petals. Then to Zoe's amazement and excitement, the petals flew out of the sphere into a beam of sorts, which split off into two directions; one to the Seismosaurus, and to the Pteranodons. The stream of petals swirled around each dinosaur. Suddenly, every one of Zoe's move card dinosaurs felt a newfound strength inside.

The Pteranodons sped past the Fishy viruses and dive-bombed Maylu. She heard them whooshing toward her. She turned and fired her arrow blast at the advancing flock. All three Pteranodons swerved to avoid the shot. They then returned to formation and continued their assault.

All three struck Maylu before she was thrown into the air for a short distance. "What did she call that attack? Metal Wing?" she asked herself. "I can see why." Before she could relax, though, she felt something hit her back. She was once again flung into the air before crashing on the ground. She turned to find the Seismosaurus bringing his tail back.

"Now, Paris, let's finish this!" Paris, with what little power she had left, roared loudly. Maylu covered her ears to protect her from the sound. Doing so, however, left her open to attack. Paris ran over to her and picked her up using her crest. She threw her upward with incredible force.

Maylu landed on the ground facedown and bounced up. Zoe noticed that her Roll-like form was breaking up. When she landed, Maylu was in her normal clothes, her PET landing next to her and ejecting the Synchro Chip.

Zoe quickly returned Paris to her younger form and ran over to see if Maylu was okay. To her relief, Maylu was now opening her eyes. "You gonna be okay?" Zoe asked.

"Don't worry," Maylu answered. "I've gone through worse than this."

Zoe looked at the PET. "What about Roll?"

"She'll be fine," Maylu said. As she got up, she said, "That reminds me…" She took the Synchro Chip out of the PET and threw it in the air. When it came down, Rush had transformed back into his dog form. He shook himself, trying to get over his transformation.

"What was that about?" Zoe asked.

"Oh, Rush doesn't like turning into that chip," Maylu answered. "I think it's because it brings back bad memories." She changed the subject to Zoe's win. "That was a pretty cool move you did at the end."

"Really, that was just me getting desperate."

"Well, whatever you call it, it seems to be working for you."

* * *

"Okay, if you want to get physical," Chaud said to Ursula, "it will be my pleasure. Gold Fist, battlechip in, download!" Just as the name implied, Chaud's right hand became covered in golden armor. He ran up to Terry and raised his fist, with the sun reflecting off the surface.

He aimed at Terry's leg at the knee joint in an attempt to use the dinosaur's weight against him. Unfortunately, Terry immediately swung around and struck Chaud with his tail.

Chaud rolled along the ground in pain. He looked up at the Tyrannosaurus, who was now roaring in victory. But Chaud was far from beaten. _If I could just find a weakness, I might have a chance._ Suddenly he thought of something. As he got up, he thought, _If this works, I'll have Max to thank for this._

"All right, Terry!" Ursula cheered. "One more attack like that and this battle is in the bag."

Chaud stood up and said, "There's an interesting surprise. I thought old ladies were supposed to be kind and compassionate."

Ursula simply stood there in shock. "W-wha-what did you just call me?" she said, surprised and trying to contain her anger.

It was ProtoMan's turn to speak, loud enough so she could hear. "Chaud, I doubt she heard you. After all, she's probably deaf, being as old as she is."

Ursula growled loudly before yelling, "How dare you? It's bad enough those kids call me that, but you're from a different dimension, different enough to know how old 'old' is."

"Chill out," Chaud said. "just be glad you're younger than something else: this T. Rex." All Terry could do was hang his jaw open in astonishment. "Give or take a few years."

Ursula growled louder. "THAT'S IT! TERRY, TURN _THOSE_ GUYS INTO FOSSILS AND MAKE SURE _NO ONE_ FINDS THEM!" Terry roared louder than he had before and charged.

"Area Steal!" Chaud disappeared from view and reappeared under Terry's body. But Terry was blind with rage and didn't pay attention to the fact that his quarry had disappeared. "Now to show the power of the Gold Fist!" He punched one of Terry's legs as it passed. Terry roared in pain. Chaud quickly hit the other leg and ran away as fast as possible.

Terry's giant body crashed onto the ground. The earth beneath him shook under the impact. Just then, Terry's body flashed a brilliant red before shrinking down into a card. Just beyond it was Ursula, panting hard in anger.

"You're going to pay for that!" she yelled as she ran toward Chaud.

"Barrier, battlechip in, download." A protective field surrounded Chaud to shield him from Ursula's rage.

"Why you…" Ursula said. "When I get in there, I'll…"

"Maybe if you learned to control your anger, you probably wouldn't have lost."

"Drop this thing right now, or I'll…"

Chaud sighed and said exasperatingly, "Spice, battlechip in, download." A mushroom-like Mushy virus appeared and sprayed some spores around the area.

Ursula couldn't help breathing them in as she said angrily, "What is this?" Soon, she started feeling drowsy, which led her to fall asleep.

Chaud deactivated the cross fusion and grabbed his PET. "Thanks for the assist, ProtoMan. That 'deaf' part was brilliant."

"Actually, I'm trying not to take pleasure in it." But Chaud could see a small smirk on his Navi's face.

* * *

With all three battles finally finished, Dr. Hikari shut down the dimensional area. Rex, Zander, Ed, rode back to SciLab on Ace's back. Max, Zoe, Lan, and Maylu were walking over to Chaud and Ursula. All of them were surprised to find Ursula asleep.

"What happened to the old lady?" Zoe asked, mostly to try to wake her up.

Max decided to help by saying, "Looks like she got her head handed to her, dentures and all."

Unfortunately, it worked. Ursula woke with a start and screamed, "Will you people please stop calling me that?" Suddenly, her tone of voice changed to just above a whisper as she bowed in humiliation. "I've had enough of that for one day."

"No offense, Max," Rex said, "but you really shouldn't be talking right now. I mean, you lost too." Max tensed for a moment and also bowed in humiliation.

"You mean I'm the only one of us who actually won?" Zoe asked amazed.

Ed sighed before saying, "Things aren't looking so hot for our team."

Suddenly they heard the Master's booming voice. "Remember, the point of these battles is not to see who is stronger, but to know your future allies. Study their fighting style, their techniques. If you lose, think about what might have cost you a victory and how to prevent it. If indeed you are victorious, learn to use it against your battle with the Atrocity."

"The Master has a point," Chaud said. "We can't let our pursuit for victory come over the real reason why we're here."

Rex spoke up. "You know, when I was watching your battles, I was amazed at how powerful you three were." He pointed to Lan and his friends. "It hardly seems possible."

"Like you said before we got here, Rex," Max said, "what we do shouldn't be possible either."

"You have a point, you two," Lan said. "You control dinosaurs, we can interact with the Cyberworld. And I have a feeling those are just two impossibilities out of all six groups." There was a pause before he spoke again. "I guess you guys better get going."

"Yeah, we better move," Max said as he turned to his teammates. He turned back to Lan and said, "Good luck, you guys," before he, his friends, and the Alpha Gang walked away from SciLab.

**Next week: C'mon, unless you have serious memory issues, you'll realize there are only two animes left. Give it a minute... You think you got it? Okay, no more games. Naruto and Sonic X!**


	10. R1B3 Fast and Furious

**And here it is, the final chapter of the first round, Naruto vs. Sonic X.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own either anime, just the fact that they've been pitted against each other.**

**Battle 3-Fast and Furious**

Things were starting to look the same wherever Sonic looked. They had seen no life forms other than each other. Soon he heard something overhead. He looked up to see Rouge coming down.

"Did you guys find anything, or anyone?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing," she answered. "As far as I know, there's nobody within two miles of here."

"Then I say we just hike for four more miles and check again," Sonic said, trying to add a bit of humor to liven everyone's spirits.

Suddenly, just as they were about to leave, they heard something in the bushes behind them. "What's that?" Amy asked nervously. Everyone looked back very slightly and saw a mysterious figure cloaked in the shadow of the canopy.

"But I checked everywhere," Rouge whispered. "There shouldn't be anyone here."

"Then what do you call that?" Sonic asked rhetorically.

"What do we do, Sonic?" Amy asked.

"For now," Sonic said, "we'll just wait until it decides to make a move. If not, then we'll…"

"How about we just stop talking about it," Knuckles said quietly at first, "and bring the fight to it!" he shouted as he jumped toward the figure. He brought his fist forward ready to connect. He caught a quick glimpse of his target: he wore what looked like an orange jumpsuit and a headband with a strange design. If he had more time, he could have figured out what it was.

Knuckles' fist made contact with the stranger, but at that same second, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. The echidna continued flying, however, right into a tree, where his spiked knuckles dug in deep.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Could someone give me a hand here?" Sonic ran through the bushes to see if his friend and rival was alright.

When he saw Knuckles stuck in the tree, he laughed out loud, saying, "Well, what do you know? It looks like Knuckles is 'stuckles.'"

"Quit your yapping and help me out, okay?" Knuckles said angrily.

"Alright, you big crybaby," Sonic said after he regained composure, "just give me a second." He went to Knuckles' front end, grabbed his abdomen, and moved his legs at high speed, which eventually broke him free and got him back to the others.

Sonic made a sudden stop at the group. Amy was the first to speak. "So what happened, Knuckles?"

"I managed to hit him, but he disappeared all of a sudden and I got stuck in that tree back there."

"Do you think it was an illusion?" Shadow asked.

"No way, it was way too solid," Knuckles answered. "To a point," he added in a whisper.

Sonic said to the group, "Whatever happened, it's a safe bet that they know we're here, so let's just wait here until they come back."

* * *

Naruto looked around for any sign of life. So far, the whole reconnaissance effort was turning out to be fruitless. Nobody had found anything, even with Sasuke and Kakashi's sharingans combined. Of course, since Kakashi could only use his for so short a time, that might have added to their hampering progress.

Sakura spoke up. "We're not getting anywhere with this. Master, I suggest we rest a bit."

"We're not going to find anyone just staying in one place, Sakura," Ino said annoyed.

Rock came to Sakura's defense. "She has a point, though. Walking around like this will only waste our energy. We will need to expend little energy as is possible if we want to be at our most effective."

Kakashi replaced his face mask as he said, "I agree with Sakura on this one, Ino. Besides, there may a slight chance that our opponents will find us."

Sasuke turned and said, "That's usually a bad thing, isn't it?"

"True," Kakashi answered, "but at least these fights will be on somewhat friendlier terms." No one, not even Ino, had any objections to his statement.

Everyone had just gotten comfortable when Naruto felt something. "Guys, I think I might have found something," he said without warning. Everyone looked around to see if they could find what Naruto thought he found. Everyone except Kakashi.

"I believe Naruto is referring to one of his Shadow Clone surveyors," he said to the confused trainees. When everyone settled down, Kakashi asked, "How far are they, Naruto?"

"I'd say less than a mile from here," Naruto answered. Everyone stood up and followed him as he led them through the forest. Naruto followed a series of marks his clone left in trees as a path. A good idea, since everything looked the same wherever they went.

Soon they came upon a group of what they best described as anthropomorphic creatures. "Master," Sakura asked, "what are those things?"

"Never have I seen creatures even close to these beings," Kakashi admitted. He noticed Sasuke climbing up a nearby tree. "Sasuke, what are you doing?"

"Just letting them know we're here," his student answered.

* * *

It had been only a few minutes since the incident with the _very_ mysterious figure (as they were calling it now), and Knuckles was already getting impatient. Everyone could tell that it was because he couldn't wait to sink his fists into whatever he tried to hit earlier, this time with more success.

Suddenly, they heard something land almost right next them. Shadow went to examine it. The object looked like a knife with the blade stuck into the ground. Shadow pulled it out and looked at it. "A kunai."

"A kunai?" Amy asked. "Those are suppose to be used by ninjas, right?"

Shadow looked around. He saw nothing, but the kunai in his hand told him a different story. "They're here," he said solemnly.

Right when he finished speaking, five people walked out of the bushes while one jumped down from a nearby tree (_No doubt the one who threw that thing,_ Sonic thought). One of them looked like the only adult in the group while the rest seemed to be no older than teenagers. Knuckles immediately jumped at the sight of one of them, but before he could speak, the adult, who had a mask covering most of his face except for one eye, held up his hand, stopping him.

"My name is Kakashi Hatake," he said, "and these are my students: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno. The other two are Rock Lee an Ino Yamanaka. Who might you be?"

Sonic stepped forward. "Call me Sonic. This is Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Shadow."

Right when Sonic finished, Knuckles pushed him out of the way and confronted Naruto. "And you're the one who disappeared on me!" ("Would saying 'excuse me' kill you?" Sonic asked rhetorically.)

Naruto looked at Knuckles for a bit and said, "You must be the one who took out my Shadow Clone." Knuckles simply growled in anger.

"Not to change the subject," Rock said, trying to keep Knuckles from harming Naruto before the battle, "but what exactly are you?"

Naruto immediately said, "I'm just going to make a guess and say maybe magical creatures, perhaps."

"Hey!" Rouge said. "The only magic involved here is probably my charms." She posed as if to show of her good looks.

"She has a point, Naruto," Kakashi said. "Not about the looks," he added when he saw Rouge's eyes sparkle. "Remember, these beings are from another world entirely. What may seem strange to us may be the norm for them."

Sonic explained, "Really, we're just your basic hedgehogs, bat, and echidna."

"You sure don't look like an echidna to me," Ino said.

"That's because I'm a hedgehog," Sonic returned darkly.

"I don't mean to sound pushy here, but you're also our opponents," Sasuke said. "Isn't it about time we started the battle already?"

"Sasuke has a point," Naruto said, "the sooner we get started the sooner we can take down Atrocity." He clenched his hand into a fist and brought it to the other hand.

"Well put, young ninja," Master said suddenly. "Time is indeed of the essence. The pairs of opponents are as follows: Sonic and Rock Lee, Knuckles and Naruto, Rouge and Sakura, and Shadow and Kakashi." The opponents each took a different position in the forest. The three remaining spectators stayed in the small clearing that Sonic and the others were found in.

"Three…" The ninjas assumed a battle stance. "Two…" The Mobians did the same. "One… start the battle!"

Rock immediately charged at Sonic. He held his hand in front of him, ready to strike. Just as he was next to the blue hedgehog, he swung his hand down. Sonic jumped out of the way, but Rock came back with another attack. For every strike Sonic dodged, Rock had another one coming, whether it be a chop, a punch, or even a kick if he was in the right position.

"You know, you're pretty fast," Sonic said, "and that's coming from someone who wrote the book on fast."

"Well, you know how to avoid my hits, but that hardly counts as 'fast,'" Rock returned.

"Really?" Sonic waited until he could get the right footing. Then when he found the opportunity, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which Rock found to be very fast. Sonic was weaving through the trees as though time had slowed down for him. Rock stood amazed at how easily Sonic was able to stop in front of him. Even more amazing was the fact that Sonic didn't even get a scratch.

"How is that possible?" he asked incredulously. "No ordinary being could move that fast through a place as this and come out undamaged."

"Then consider me _extra-_ordinary." Sonic ran around a few more times before finally laying a punch on Rock. He did this a few more times before Rock decide to try something.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few shuriken. Dividing them between both hands, he threw them out so that they flew in all directions. Most of them hit the nearby tree trunks while some lodged themselves in the ground. Luckily for Rock, one of them managed to stop Sonic. He saw the shuriken coming and grinded to a halt before it landed in the tree.

"You gotta watch where you throw those things," Sonic said comically. "They could easily hit somebody."

"This time, you are not going anywhere." Rock once again had his hand out, ready to strike Sonic. Suddenly, Sonic folded his body inwards and started spinning at an incredibly fast rate. Before Rock knew what happened, Sonic was once again on the move.

The blue ball that was Sonic charged at Rock and knocked him back and even rolled across him. Before Rock could stand up, Sonic came around for another attack. He knocked the young ninja into the air. Rock grabbed a nearby tree branch and swung on top of it to avoid any more attacks. He knew he couldn't stay up there for long, as did Sonic. He'd have to come up with a plan, and fast.

* * *

"Go, Sonic, go!" Amy shouted. She was still in the clearing with Ino and Sasuke. All four battles were taking place all around them, but Amy was more focused on Sonic's battle than the others.

Ino was right next to Amy when she cheered. "Are you his biggest fan or something?"

"More like his love interest," Amy answered. She then whispered, "He just doesn't want to admit it yet."

Ino simply smiled and said, "I know what you mean. I've been trying to get Sasuke to notice me for a long time now."

Amy looked over at Sasuke. He just stood there with his arms crossed, staring intently at the battles around him. Seeing this started to unnerve Amy. Simply looking at him gave her a creepy feeling about him. She turned to Ino. "No offense, but you might want to check your taste in guys."

Ino looked over at Sonic. She couldn't understand him at all. He seemed like he was enjoying the fight, making wisecracks at Rock every so often. "If that's true," Ino returned, "then I'm not the only one who needs to."

* * *

Knuckles didn't waste any time attacking Naruto first. As he ran, he quickly picked up a small rock and threw it at him. The rock bounced off Naruto's face. "Ow! What was that for?" he demanded.

"Just to make sure you won't disappear on me again," Knuckles said. He jumped and lowered one of his spiked fists. Naruto quickly moved to the side to avoid the blow. Knuckles growled. "Come on, I just want to punch you to make up for your vanishing act."

"Want me to show you how I did it?" Naruto asked. He made a cross-like gesture with his hands before shouting, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" There was a puff of smoke and Knuckles saw a disturbing sight: There were Narutos all around him.

"What kind of cheap trick is this?" Knuckles said.

"'Cheap trick?'" one of them said. "This is just your average Shadow Clone technique," another continued. "Or you could call it body splitting," said yet another.

_Yeah, well, right now, the only thing that's splitting now is my head,_ Knuckles thought, _having to hear more of you guys than just one._

Knuckles didn't have time to think it out. The real Naruto could be anywhere, and if he hesitated, the battle could be over in mere minutes. Instead, he ran to one of the Narutos and punched, but he disappeared. "Wrong one," one of them said. Knuckles ran over and hit him too, with the same result. "Missed again." To make matters worse, all the Narutos started moving around, not only dodging his attacks, but landing a few of their own.

"It's not possible," Knuckles said to himself. "There's no way you can make that many clones and be able to control them."

"'Control' isn't the point." "We're all the same Naruto…" "…And we're all distinct at the same time." "So we can attack separately…" "…Or together!" With that, everyone jumped up and fell towards the exhausted Knuckles. They all landed without even giving him a chance to move. Everyone stood to see an exhausted Knuckles struggling to get up.

"Nice, huh?" "We call that little move…" "…the Naruto Uzumaki Barrage."

"Would you please stop finishing each others' sentences?" Knuckles asked. "It's hurting my head more than your hands are."

* * *

Sakura ran toward Rouge with her hand out. Rouge, however, simply stood there. _If she's not going to even run away, this will be an easy victory,_ Sakura thought. She was inches away from the bat when she brought her hand down. But she didn't hit anything. In fact, Rouge had disappeared from view.

Sakura looked around to see where she might have gone. "Hey, up here," a voice said. Sakura looked up and saw Rouge flying out of reach.

"That's totally unfair," Sakura said to herself.

Apparently, Rouge heard her, because she said, "Call it what you want, but this is just going to be one of many moves and techniques your opponents will probably use."

Sakura tried jumping to get to her, without success, as she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't forget," Rouge answered, "I'm not going to be the only one you'll be fighting. You're going to meet up with other people who have a lot of abilities, and they won't be afraid to use them. This one will just seem like the best of those 'unfair' moves." Just then, Rouge flipped, lowering her foot toward Sakura.

Sakura managed to avoid the kick, but Rouge made another attempt. The only thing Sakura could do was retreat and come up with a new strategy. She quickly ran into a bush trying to avoid her. But she could only hide for so long.

Rouge actually did see Sakura jump into the bush. "How pathetic can you get? And here I thought ninjas-in-training put up a better fight than this." She heard a rustling in the bush and then she saw Sakura attempting to run. "_That_ pathetic."

Rouge flew after the running girl until she was practically on top her. She flipped once more into a kick. She struck Sakura, but something was odd; the kick seemed to go right through her and she vanished instantly. Rouge landed and checked the surrounding area, but Sakura was nowhere to be found. _Was this what happened to Knuckles? No, he said it was too solid._ Even stranger, there were no footprints leading to this point. But she did hear footsteps behind her.

She quickly roundhoused and blocked Sakura's arm from coming down on her. Sakura kept pushing her arm down, but Rouge kept her leg up, preventing her from doing so.

Sakura smiled. "Not bad."

"Government agent by day…" Rouge quickly lowered her leg and lifted her other one, kicking Sakura in the face, knocking her back. "…Jewel thief by night." She approached the fallen Sakura. "Looks like you're no better than your opponents: using tactics that they deem 'unfair.'"

"If you're allowed to use them," Sakura said, "then so am I." Suddenly, she moved swiftly to lay her first punch on Rouge. The bat was blown back and landed flat on her back. "In case you're wondering," Sakura said as she got up, "what you saw was a simple Cloning Jutsu. Not as good as the Shadow Clone Jutsu your friend experienced, but it gets the job done. Really, it's just an illusion."

Rouge stood up and brushed herself. "Okay, little girl, you've just earned the right to get smacked… hard."

* * *

"Shadow, I have to ask," Kakashi said to Shadow before Master started the countdown, "you didn't seem to talk at all since we arrived. Care to explain why?"

"Silence allows me to focus on what I'm doing," Shadow simply said.

Kakashi looked at him for a few seconds, almost as though he thought there was something more to his answer. But he simply shrugged and said, "Okay, that works for me."

But unknown to Kakashi, there was another reason. Despite his resolve to participate in these battles to save their world, Shadow's so-called "failure" still haunted him. And though his companions weren't even thinking such, to Shadow, they thought him a failure as well. _I need something to prove to them, and me, that I _am_ as powerful as I have always been, maybe more._

With this in mind, Shadow made the first move at Master's signal. He immediately moved in with a spin attack. Kakashi simply stood there. Soon Shadow was coming in for the first hit, but as he moved in on Kakashi's location, he found that he only hit empty air. He broke his spin and searched around. The ninja master was merely a few feet away.

Enraged, Shadow tried again. With the short distance between the two combined with his speed, there was no hope for Kakashi. Or so Shadow thought. Once again, Shadow closed in on Kakashi, and once again, he just missed him.

"Not to sound offensive," Kakashi said, "but is that really the best you can do?"

Unfortunately, Shadow did take offense. This time, he ran at him with his fist ready to strike as he passed, but even this was unsuccessful. No matter what Shadow did, Kakashi seemed to be able to dodge at the last possible moment.

Kakashi yawned and said, in between failed strikes, "You know… I wish… I had… something to read… But… I left my… book back… in my world."

An infuriated Shadow said loudly in between punches, "Do… you… ever… shut... up?"

"I think talking makes the battle more interesting," Kakashi said. "Besides, you learn more about your opponent that way."

"Yeah, well what I'm learning is that you never seem to take anything seriously."

"You should have met me when I did."

"That's almost hard to believe."

"Now what I'm learning about you is that you're obviously troubled by something," Kakashi thought aloud. Shadow took extreme offense now.

Shadow charged in on Kakashi again, and this time, Kakashi wasn't going to run. Instead, he performed a series of hand signals almost as fast as Shadow could run. "Water Vortex Jutsu!" Shadow was blocked by a tower of water. The black hedgehog attempted to run past it, but the cyclone succeeded in enveloping him.

Shadow was tossed and turned by the circling waves. He could see the vortex digging into the ground. This caused something to dislodge itself from the ground up into the vortex. Shadow looked up to see it sparkle as it came hurtling down.

* * *

Rock looked down at Sonic, spinning around the tree like a shark around a raft waiting for its prey to fall overboard. Suddenly, the hedgehog stopped right in front of him. "You know, maybe you'd have a better chance of winning if you came down from there. Not a favorable chance, but still…" Rock knew Sonic was right. But if he was going to come down, he'd have to figure out a way to deal with Sonic's speed.

Just then, he heard a creak beside him. He looked to find the branch starting to bend. _Looks like this thing will not take my weight any longer._ At the minute the word "weight" came into his head, he stopped and thought, _"Weight." I think I have an idea!_

"You coming down or not?" Sonic yelled, breaking Rock's daydream.

"I am coming down. But first, I need to get rid of something." Rock reached down to the cuffs of his pant legs and pulled them up to reveal his ankle weights to Sonic.

"What are those things for?" Sonic asked.

"You will see," Rock said vaguely. He unfastened them and said, "Ordinarily, I would not take these off without my master's instruction. But since he is not here, I will have to judge when it is the appropriate time."

"I doubt it would help much," Sonic said. "After all, they can't be that heavy." But Sonic spoke too soon. Rock held the weights out and dropped them. They both landed on the ground with a thud and dirt flew everywhere upon impact. When the dust settled, Sonic saw that only the top half of each weight was visible; the rest was lodged into the ground.

Now Sonic started to worry; if these weights were that heavy, one could only imagine how strong Rock's legs were. Instead of wanting to find out, Sonic immediately unleashed a spin attack and rammed into the tree. The impact caused Rock to fall. Luckily, he landed on his feet, but Sonic wanted to make sure that his luck ran out by charging full force.

But it was Sonic's luck that ran out. He stopped where Rock was standing, only to find he wasn't there. Sonic immediately cancelled his spin mode and looked around. He didn't need to look far though.

"Up here!" Sonic heard Rock calling from above. He looked up to find Rock plummeting down with his fist in front of him. The fist immediately connected and Sonic flew into a nearby stone. "From one rock," Rock said, "to another." The blue hedgehog suffered a lot of damage.

_I can see how he got up there,_ Sonic thought to himself. _With those weights off, his legs are pretty strong, allowing him to jump that high. But without me noticing? It's got to be a trick._ That's when Sonic had an idea. He stood up and walked toward Rock. "I have to say, that was pretty impressive. But it would've been more impressive if it was done without using your little ninja tricks, like you used on Knuckles." Sonic hoped to catch him off guard, allowing the fight to work in his favor.

Instead, however, Rock smiled. "Sorry, no tricks here. Unlike the others, I specialize in taijutsu, where everything is as real as that rock you just hit." Rock attempted to prove his point by running toward Sonic with an outstretched hand. Sonic had a hard time believing that his opponent was moving almost as fast, if not faster, than him. Rock continued to run into Sonic multiple times, sending him into the air with each strike before stopping his assault to catch his breath.

_Strong _and_ fast,_ Sonic thought. _And he was pretty fast _before_ he took those things off._

* * *

_How do I fight when I can't even tell which of these imposters is my opponent?_ Knuckles thought to himself. The echidna finally stood up and faced all the Narutos looking at him. Some of them pulled out some shuriken and threw them at Knuckles. He managed to dodge every one of them, but it was out of the frying pan and into the fire as more look-alikes came up beside him and struck hard. Knuckles crashed onto a large stone.

He sat up and held his head in pain. "Fine place to put a rock," he said to himself. "Why couldn't those guys bash their heads on this thing?" When he finished speaking a thought came into his head. He remembered what he did to Naruto when the battle began: he threw a rock at him to see if he was real. If the principle still applied…

Knuckles lifted the large rock behind him with all his strength. "Very nice," one of the Narutos said. "Is that supposed to scare us?"

"Not quite," Knuckles replied. He hoisted the rock up in the air and when it came down, he punched it. The rock shattered into smaller stones that lifted in the air for a bit. For Knuckles, it was long enough to jump and punch, kick, and slap each stone toward the crowd. The salvo of stones, to Knuckles' satisfaction, hit every last shadow clone with enough force to make them disappear. But only one remained: the real Naruto.

Naruto looked around to see if any of his shadow clones survived the onslaught. Unfortunately, none were found. "All right, plan B."

"And what might that be?" Knuckles asked rhetorically.

Naruto quickly performed three hand signs and smoke surrounded his form. Knuckles shielded himself and when it was over, he saw something very disturbing, even more so than seeing multiple opponents: himself!

"Like it?" Naruto said. Knuckles was surprised to hear his voice come out of his doppelganger's mouth. "Transformation jutsu. Named for obvious reasons."

"Not bad," Knuckles said, surprising Naruto, "but that's not really my best side. And if you're trying to confuse someone, I got news for you: I'm the only one here."

"Hey, relax," Naruto said, "I just think that your moves are great, so I thought I'd use them for a bit." Naruto charged at Knuckles, who was doing the same thing, both with their fists raised. They both punched and dodged every blow the other gave

_This guy was right,_ Knuckles thought, _he can use my own moves._ After a few more rounds, though, he realized something. "You know," he said to his opponent, "you may have my strength, my power, and my moves…" he paused. "…but do you know how to use them?"

Knuckles managed to flip behind Naruto and immediately punched him with incredible force. Naruto flew forward and skidded along the forest floor to a halt. Almost instantly, smoke was released around Naruto's body, and his true form appeared when it lifted.

"Okay, Knuckles," Naruto said as he got up, "now it's time to take you down."

"Finally," Knuckles responded, "some action."

* * *

Rouge started advancing toward Sakura, kicking when she thought she had the opportunity. Unfortunately, Sakura seem to dodge every attempted blow.

_It's no good,_ Rouge thought. _It's almost as though she knows my every move. Of course she does, she's a ninja. They all have a sixth sense about these things._

Rouge noticed that a leaf had fallen between them as she continued her assault. Instinct caused her to look up toward the canopy. She noticed that she couldn't see anything beyond it, only a few specks of light shining through the leaves. _That's it!_ she thought with a smile on her face.

She jumped up and flew into the thick cover of leaves and braches above her. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked tauntingly. "Giving up?"

"Oh no," Rouge answered through the leaves, "just getting brighter." For a while after she spoke, there was an eerie silence. Sakura formed a defensive stance, ready for whatever Rouge might plan.

Suddenly, Rouge dived out of the trees and came down on Sakura. But it all happened so fast, the female ninja didn't have enough time to counter it. Rouge kicked her off balance and sprang back into the treetops.

Sakura had just managed to get back on her feet when Rouge struck again, knocking her back down. But Sakura had only turned to face Rouge when she disappeared again. Sakura got up and quickly moved to one side to avoid the next strike. However, there was none.

Sakura didn't understand why Rouge didn't attack her that time. _Not that I'm complaining._ But she soon would be, as the bat came down once again, struck hard and swift, and vanished.

Sakura kept her eyes on the canopy above, looking for Rouge's next strike. For a while, nothing seemed to happen. Suddenly she was swept off her feet when something flew past her legs. She landed on her back and saw Rouge flying above her, once again headed for the canopy.

_Now I get it,_ she thought. _She strikes at random times in random ways, trying to keep me from getting a fix on her. So how do I combat that?_

* * *

Shadow looked at the shining object falling toward him. It bounced off the walls of swirling water. Shadow caught it right before it hit him. He looked at it: it looked like a diamond in a familiar cut. But what really made Shadow suspicious was the feeling he was getting by just looking at it.

Without much chance to verify his theory, Shadow held it up and concentrated. Soon he felt the waves slow down around him to the point where he could finally touch the ground. He then started running at high speed in the opposite direction of the water. The vortex, met with wind that resisted its movement, collapsed around Shadow.

Kakashi watched in amazement as his Water Vortex Jutsu was being undone. He saw Shadow standing where the center of the cyclone would have been. He noticed he held something in his hand.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Just what I thought," Shadow said, almost as though he hadn't heard Kakashi. "I don't know how, but this will be the trump card in this fight." He held the object up triumphantly and it shone a brilliant light. "A Chaos Emerald!"

Kakashi backed up a bit with caution. "Chaos Emerald?"

"This powerful gem has within it the power to distort time and space," Shadow said. "That's how I stopped the cyclone. By slowing the flow of time around me, I was able to gain enough footing to run at a speed that would cancel it out." He moved the emerald toward Kakashi. "But that's not all I can do with it."

Shadow then released a powerful shockwave that flowed toward Kakashi. The range of this attack was too wide, so all he could do was brace himself and stand his ground. Unfortunately, "stand his ground" was not as easy as he thought. The waves pushed him back into a tree with incredible force.

_Yes,_ Shadow thought,_ this will prove that I am no failure._

Meanwhile, Kakashi had his own thoughts. _I have to get that jewel away from him. There's more to this fight than what the Master expected us to gain from it._

He stood up and held out his hand. Shadow noticed that it began to crackle with electricity. Kakashi than raced up to Shadow, who now was using a full force chaos blast.

* * *

Sonic was running out of options, and Rock was running all over the place. He started to run in a circle around the blue hedgehog. Sonic tried to see him through the dust he was kicking up, but so far nothing.

_Rock's not going to wait much longer,_ Sonic thought. _I just need to counterattack, and I'd better do it soon._ Sonic's only problem was that he couldn't see his opponent. Rock was going too fast. _Wait a minute, I bet I can use that to my advantage._

Sonic curled into a ball and started spinning in place until he was at his fastest. Then, without warning, he charged directly ahead. He crashed into Rock and continued forward. But he soon turned around and hit Rock again.

Rock was flung into the air, just like the first time. This time however, because of his new, lighter weight, he flew higher than the trees. Sonic came to a stop and looked up. "There we go, just like I planned it." He looked at Rock's discarded weights. A smile appeared on his face. "He'll need these," he said. He went to pick one of them up. He struggled with the weight as he held it in both hands. "On second thought, maybe only one will do."

He ran up one of the trees and jumped above the canopy. He saw Rock hitting the height of his ascension and just now coming down. Luckily for Sonic, he was able to meet Rock's height.

"What are you doing here?" Rock asked.

"Just giving you a good-bye present," Sonic returned and tossed the weight into Rock's hand. With the added weight, Rock fell at a faster rate than previously. "See you when you hit bottom!" Sonic called as Rock disappeared through the canopy.

Sonic decided to add insult to injury by curling up once again and streaking toward the forest floor. He crashed through the canopy and caught a quick glimpse of Rock, who was just recovering from the fall. Sonic landed on top of Rock and released a wave of dirt and dust upon impact. When the dust cleared, Sonic was standing on top of Rock, doing a sort of victory pose.

"Very well," Rock said through pants and breaths, "you win." Sonic leapt off of Rock's body and offered to help him up.

Rock stood up and went to fetch his other weight. "I do not understand it," he said. "How were you able to discern my location at that speed?"

"I didn't," Sonic answered, "but you were going so fast, I figured I would hit you anyway."

Rock smiled at Sonic as he attached his weights to his ankles. "Very clever of you," he said. "Not many people have used my own speed against me like that."

* * *

Knuckles and Naruto were exchanging blows one after the other. There weren't too many connections, however. Since they started punching each other, they were both dodging and blocking and not landing any real hits. Finally, the two combatants managed to put some space in between one another. Both of them were breathing hard.

_He's not going to be able to take much more of this,_ Knuckles thought. _Just have to land a hit._

On the other side, Naruto was thinking the same thing. _If I don't finish it up now, chances are he might finish me. But how will I know one hit will take him out? He's already taken the full brunt my Naruto Uzumaki Barrage, and he's still standing. I can't risk it. I have to finish this with one powerful attack. And I know just the one._

Naruto held out his hand and concentrated. Soon, a mystic blue sphere formed in his hand.

"What the heck is that?" Knuckles asked.

"Just a little technique called… Rasengan!" Naruto answered. He held his hand so that it was behind his head, with the orb pointing toward Knuckles.

To prevent seeing what would happen him if the Rasengan hit, Knuckles ran at Naruto with his fist aimed at him. Naruto also started running toward Knuckles. When the two were within striking range, they both put their hands forward for the win.

Naruto tilted his head to prevent Knuckles' fist from landing. Knuckles, however, wasn't as lucky. The Rasengan made full contact with his body. Knuckles was immediately blasted backward by the impact. He landed with his back to a tree. Knuckles was too exhausted to continue fighting.

Naruto came up to Knuckles to inspect his handiwork. Knuckles lifted his head to Naruto.

"Not bad, kid," Knuckles said. "That was the first time I ever met my match in physical power." Knuckles tried to lift himself up, but his back was hurt pretty badly. Naruto offered to help him up, but Knuckles said, "No thanks. I've never asked for help when I'm down before, and I'm not about to start now."

Knuckles didn't realize it just yet, but at that point, his back was healed.

* * *

Sakura attempted to listen for Rouge, hoping to catch her before her next strike. But no matter how hard she tried, Rouge was able to land one blow after another. Sakura desperately tried to think of a way to at least avoid her long enough. Just then, an idea came to her. She waited for Rouge to strike.

When she was sure she heard a faint rustle, Sakura quickly moved her hands in five different positions. Just behind her, Rouge flew in for the strike. She hit her target and, for the first time since she started her hit-and-run tactic, stopped to look at Sakura. But in the place of what should have been Sakura was a log.

Rouge heard Sakura's voice. "Let's see you get out of an impossible situation the way I did." Suddenly, she was surrounded on all sides by Sakura and five of what must have been more energy clones.

"You see," all the Sakuras seemed to say, "I'm not one for some of the more stylish jutsu. I use my head to get me through a fight. Now as you can see, there are a bunch of clones surrounding you, but only one is real. Once you hit a clone, it will disappear. The problem is, you have only one chance; after that, the rest will charge in and the real me will attack. Not only that, but even if you do hit the right one, all the clones will prepare for a counterattack." At that moment, they all assumed a battle stance. "But you don't have time to think it out, because we could attack you at anytime. Now, pick your target."

Rouge smiled. "I already have." The clones relaxed their stance and gave her a curious look. "There's no sense in trying to fool a bat, missy." Suddenly, she leaped up and kicked into the branches near her. Sakura, the real Sakura, was forced out and fell to the ground. When she landed, all her clones disappeared; she had little energy left to keep them stable.

Rouge landed softly and looked at her fallen opponent. "I will say, it was a good try, though." She held out her hand and pulled Sakura up.

"How did you…?" Sakura asked dumbfounded.

"If you're as smart as you claim, than you should know that bats have exceptional hearing. You couldn't fool me."

Sakura smiled and said, "Well, I guess you got me there." But her inside voice said, _No way! I had everything planned out! That shouldn't have happened!_ Her thoughts were interrupted when they heard a loud noise. "That sounds like a Chidori," Sakura said to herself.

* * *

Kakashi put the lightning blade directly in front of him, shielding him from Shadow's blast. But this defense only worked so well; he could still feel the impact when the attacks made contact. Kakashi moved his legs with every amount of effort he could muster. With each step, Shadow tried to increase the power of his attack, making each step more of a challenge than the last.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time, Kakashi stopped right in front of Shadow. He pushed his Chidori forward against the beam and struck the Chaos Emerald. The emerald flew out of Shadow's hand at an incredible distance. Shadow was also forced back by the impact.

However, beaten and bruised, Shadow still wasn't done yet. "No," he grunted, "I won't lose this." He advanced angrily toward Kakashi, but his composure was less than convincing. He was staggering, hunched over and holding his side. Each step was about as slow as Kakashi's were when he was facing the chaos blast.

"Forget it," Kakashi said to Shadow.

Shadow stopped. "What?" he said in disbelief.

"I do not wish to fight an opponent whose mind is not in the battle."

Shadow grunted and said, "What does that mean?"

"My sharingan eye can only see things in the physical plane," Kakashi said, holding his hand above the part of his mask that covered his eye, "not read minds. But I don't need it to tell that something is weighing heavily on you; something that has hurt your spirit and is causing you to vent your anger toward me."

"Is this some psychological attack?" Shadow said defiantly.

"Whether or not you choose to tell me what is bothering you is your decision alone. I will not force you."

Shadow paused for a few seconds, then spoke. "Before we were brought here, I had failed to stop a power-hungry would-be dictator from unleashing his new power on my teammates, and I haven't been able to forget it for even one second." He paused. "I was just trying to prove to them, and me, that I'm not the failure I was back in our world."

Just then, a new voice from behind said, "Is that what's been bugging you, Shadow?" Shadow turned to find Sonic, the other Mobians, and the ninja trainees approaching them. "Shadow, take it from someone who almost got his head handed to him because of you: there are many words I could use to describe you. 'Weak' is not one of them."

Kakashi then spoke his piece. "Many times in life, you'll find it's not what others think of you, but what _you_ think of yourself. Sometimes, though, you'll find the opposite to be true as well." There was a pause between everyone. "I suggest that you should refrain from battling," Kakashi said, "until you are sure of yourself. With this in mind, I think we should call this battle a draw."

"Maybe you're right," Shadow said, "but know this." He smiled mischievously as he said, "Even if I wasn't concerned with failure, you would have gone down anyway."

"I highly doubt that," Kakashi returned.

"Well done, warriors," Master's voice boomed in their heads. "It is this fighting spirit and attitude I shall come to expect when you battle against the Atrocity."

"Guess that's our cue to leave," Sonic said. "We'll be seeing you." He and his friends walked away, leaving the ninjas.

"You know, Naruto," Sasuke said, "that Sonic character reminds me of you." Naruto smiled confidently before Sasuke continued. "Brash, overconfident, sometimes acts without thinking through things…" Naruto bowed his head in disappointment.

Kakashi spoke up. "But still full of potential nonetheless. You could all learn a few things from this group."

**That wraps it up here, but everyone still has four battles to go. Be here next week, when we bring you the ultimate card game.**

**(One more thing: anyone who can guess what this chapter's _deus ex machina_ is gets a standard, Marvel- approved No-Prize! [mini-disclaimer: I don't own that either])**


	11. R2B1 Power of the Cards

**Welcome back, anime brawl fans. Today marks the start of round two. Today's competitors hail from the animes Dinosaur King and Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Also, something I wanted to get clear with you before we go on: Do you remember my note at the end of R1B3? Well, here's a lit lesson for you. _Deus ex machina_ is a Latin phrase meaning "god from the machine." It refers to those Greek-style plays where the actor playing the god would be lowered/raised onto the stadium via a moving platform, after which he would bend the story to his will. These days, the phrase is rather negative, as it refers to any element that shows up almost unexpectedly simply to move the story forward. In the case of the last chapter, the _dues ex machina_ was the Chaos Emerald found by Shadow. Just wanted to give you something to think about. ;)**

**I should probably warn you now; from here on, you may see a lot of repitition, having to go through introductions and explanations.**

**Disclaimer: I could claim to own these guys, but then I'd be sued for copyright violations.**

**And now, a word from the Master before we start today's fight.**

**Round 2**

The Master's voice rang throughout the Crossroad of Worlds. "All teams have now faced their first opponents. Any sustained injuries will be erased and these next battles will be fought as though none were received. This will hold true for all future battles. As for the past battles, learn what you can from them: be aware of your mistakes, find how you are similar, and learn to use those similarities for the final confrontation. Take heart, warriors, and fight these next battles with bravery."

**Battle 1-Power of the Cards**

The D-Team and Alpha Gang continued their trek through the forest. Everyone, especially Rex, wondered about their next opponents. They had already met up with the ability to fuse with the cyberworld, so they were more than a little anxious.

"I still can't believe how ordinary humans could damage our dinosaurs, let alone beat them in battle," Rex mused.

"Well, they weren't just humans," Zoe reminded him. "They were human-computer program hybrids." She struggled to get the proper words out.

"Maybe, but that kind of power really got to me," Rex said. "Truth to tell, I've actually made a mental list of a lot of things we could be going up against."

Meanwhile, the Alpha Gang, who were trailing behind, had issues of their own. "Talk about unfair," Ed said. "All these trees an not one piece of fruit anywhere."

"Listen, Ed, we're all a little hungry, but you don't have to make it worse," Ursula said angrily. "If you're that hungry, just look all around you and maybe you'll find something."

"No need," they heard Rex say. They all ran up to the D-Team, who were in front of a banana tree. "Maybe this will help?"

Max was already climbing up trying to get a bunch, but he immediately saw something in the leaves that were even more interesting. "Hey, Max, hurry it up!" he heard Zoe call. He grabbed a bunch of bananas, as well as the things in the braches, and jumped down.

"Took you long enough," Zander said to him.

"Sorry, but I found something you might want to see." Max held up what he found in the branches: move cards! Most of them were moves for fire, water and earth dinosaurs.

"What are these doing here?" Zoe asked. But she wasn't expecting an answer. However, she heard one in the form of Master's voice.

"I was able to use your laboratory's teleportation device to bring these cards here. I realized that the Alpha Gang had so few cards to work with, so I took a few cards of their respective elements. You will also find duplicates of the attacks called Neck Crusher and Tail Smash."

"Wow," Rex said in astonishment, "there is just no limit to this guy's powers, is there?"

"If that were so," Master said sadly, "then I wouldn't have asked you to do this."

"Quick question," Ursula said. "Once we're done here, could we take these cards with us?"

"No," the Master said solemnly. "When you return to your world, these cards shall return from whence they came." Everyone could hear Ursula sighing in frustration.

* * *

"I still don't get it," Joey said, mostly to himself.

"There's a surprise," Kaiba said sarcastically.

"Funny, Kaiba," Joey said. "I'm talking about what Master said to us earlier."

"You mean about dueling without taking turns?" Jaden asked.

"Exactly," Joey confirmed. "How are we supposed to pull that off?"

"Perhaps we'll learn best by actually doing it," Yugi suggested. "Sometimes the best teacher can be experience. I assume everyone knows that somehow."

Just then, they heard something. "What's that?" Syrus asked. The noise was coming from the other side of a nearby bush. Everyone quickly found a spot to hide, behind trees, in front of the bush, as they attempted to spy on whoever it was.

One member of the group walking past them was a boy who looked like he had horns on his head. "So, Rex, what's this mental list you have that you were talking about?"

"Well, so far, I've got it down to the possibilities of creatures that don't exist, super-heroes, mystic knights…"

An adult female interrupted the one called Rex. "And what exactly is the possibility of any of those happening?"

"Would you relax, old lady?" said a young girl with sunglasses and a strange creature in a pouch. "Rex is just pointing out some possibilities."

"Will you stop calling me 'old' already?"

A small, fat male came up and said, "Ursula's got a point. What we could be facing next might be the last thing we expect, and possibly something we never would've thought of."

Jaden looked over to Yugi, who was right next to him. "Sounds like we better give them an idea of what's next."

Joey, who was behind the bush, said, "And I've got the perfect way to bring them here."

* * *

Both D-Team and Alpha Gang continued walking along the trail. Suddenly, Ursula stopped and shouted, "All right, which one of you called me that?"

Everyone turned to look at her. Max said, "Sounds like she's hearing things."

"No, this has happened too many times before," Zander informed them. "She swears she can easily tell when someone somewhere calls her the 'O' word."

Rex thought out loud, "Well, maybe it was that Chaud guy."

"No way," Ursula said venomously, "I'd be able to tell if it was Chaud and it's not Chaud. But who ever did that," she suddenly ran back from where they came, "they will pay!" Everyone ran after her.

Soon, she turned toward a bush and ran through. She immediately crashed into someone and both were on the ground in pain.

"Okay, maybe that wasn't such a good idea," said the person in front of her. He was a male with blonde hair. Someone approached him.

"Since when are any of your ideas good, Wheeler?"

"Cool it, Kaiba!" he responded.

"Ursula!" Ursula heard Zander calling her. She turned to see the others coming through the bush.

"Did you have to run off like that?" Max asked her.

"Well," Ursula said as she got up, "at least it led us to the next group." The strangers approached them.

"My name is Yugi Mutou," one of them said.

Max stepped forward and said, "I'm Max Taylor." Everyone then introduced themselves.

Jaden approached Rex and said, "We couldn't help but overhear your conversation. About how you were trying to figure out what you were going up against."

"Was I close with any of those things I listed?" Rex asked.

"Sort of," Jaden answered. He pulled out his deck.

"What's that?" Zoe asked. She moved in closer for a better look.

Chazz scoffed. "Are you saying you've never seen a deck of cards before?" Zoe looked in his direction, angry at Chazz's suggestion that she was an idiot.

Jaden took a few cards out of his deck while Yugi explained. "Our fighting style centers around a trading card game. The creatures you see on these cards seemingly have the ability to come to life."

Rex turned to Ed and said, "Okay, I guess you were right. That _was_ the last thing I expected."

Mai stepped forward and asked, "What do you mean?"

Max explained, "Believe it or not, this is very similar to what we do." Some of the duelists gave him curious looks. At that moment, Chomp ran up between the two groups.

"What is that?" Syrus asked.

"If I didn't know better," Bastion said, "I'd say it was a Triceratops."

"That's actually what it is," Max said with a chuckle.

"What? Yeah, right," Joey said. "How can you be sure?" Max and the others gave him a look. Joey immediately understood. "Oh. Right," he said in humiliation.

"So how is that similar to what we do?" Alexis asked.

"Easy," Ursula answered. She pulled out her Tyrannosaurus card. "Our dinosaurs are able to turn into cards. With them, we can summon them into their battle-ready forms."

"How is this possible?" Bastion asked. "How are you able to do this?"

Zander simply said, "It's a secret."

"Truth to tell, we don't fully trust these guys," Max whispered, so everyone but the Alpha Gang could hear. Kaiba wasn't too pleased to hear this; this was the second group of less-than-perfect people that the Master apparently allowed to come here. But he kept his feelings to himself.

"So, quick question," Ed spoke up. "How do you guys play this game of yours?"

"At this point," Bastion answered, "I believe that all you need to know is how to win."

"Right, and that would be…" Max said questioningly.

"Just knock our life points from 2000 to zero," Jaden explained. "That should be easy enough, right?"

"But how do we know if you guys are playing fair?" Ed asked accusingly.

"I understand your concern," Yugi responded. "Therefore, you have our word as duelists that we will battle honorably."

"In that case, we'd better get started," Rex said. "I mean, these battles aren't going to fight themselves."

"Well said, young one." The Master's voice rang out. "The parings for this battle will be as follows: Max and Syrus, Rex and Yugi, Zoe and Alexis, Zander and Joey, and Ursula and Seto. Battlers, take your positions."

The D-Team members returned their dinosaurs to their card form. The duelists drew their first five cards. Everyone waited for the Master's signal.

"Three…" Dinosaur cards were positioned. "Two…" Duelists prepared to place their cards. "One… start the battle!"

"Dino Slash!" Max shouted. "Go, Triceratops, roar!" Chomp reappeared and started changing in size. Syrus couldn't believe that the baby Triceratops he saw moments before was now changed into a full grown adult. Chomp roared and faced his opponent: Ambulanceroid.

"What the heck is that supposed to be?" Max asked.

"Get used to it," Syrus said. "All of my monsters look like this."

"In that case," Max whispered to himself, "he must have the ugliest things of all time in that deck."

Chomp started the battle by charging forward. Ambulanceroid tried dodging, but they were only near misses. It wouldn't be long before the dinosaur landed a hit. Syrus was desperate for an idea. Seeing nothing in his hand that would help, he decided to draw a card. _If I'm supposed to be dueling on the fly,_ he thought, _then this couldn't hurt._

He drew his card and looked at the image. He smiled to himself. "All right, I summon Decoyroid in defense mode!" A tiny car appeared on the field. Suddenly, Chomp stopped his assault on the Ambulanceroid and headed for Decoyroid.

"Chomp, what are you doing?" Max said to him. "That ambulance thing is that way!"

"I hate to tell you this, Max," Syrus said. Max looked in his direction. "But he has no choice." Chomp lowered his horns and impaled Decoyroid. The little car was destroyed on impact.

"What exactly do you mean by 'he had no choice?'" Max asked.

"Decoyroid forces all opponents to attack it," Syrus explained. "As long as it's on the field, you can't attack anyone else."

Max was a little shocked, but relief came to him when he realized something. "Then I guess it's a good thing he's not on the field, right?"

"Actually, when one of my roid monsters is destroyed by an opponent's attack, Ambulance roid allows me to summon it back to the field." True to his word, Decoyroid appeared once again.

"Well," Max said, trying to regain confidence, "I can still do damage."

"Not quite," Syrus responded. "When you destroy a monster in defense position, no actual damage is done."

_This is bad,_ Max thought. "Chomp, don't do anything yet, not until I figure out how to work this out!"

"It won't be that easy," Syrus said. "Ambulanceroid, attack!" The ambulance's wheels started spinning and screeching before it charged at the Triceratops. It collided with Chomp and sent him backwards.

"How am I going to beat this thing if I can't attack the right one?" Max said to himself.

* * *

"Dino Slash!" Rex yelled as he ran Ace's card across his holder. "Carnotaurus, blow them away!" Ace appeared briefly before changing; his hind legs grew longer and spikes appeared along his back as well as his head. His eyes flashed in the form of small tornadoes. When it was over, Ace looked over to Yugi, who had just summoned Celtic Guardian.

Ace roared and charged at the warrior. "Celtic Guardian, counterstrike with Celtic Slash!" Celtic raised his sword and swung at Ace. Ace struck back by whipping his tail at Celtic. The sword connected, but did nothing aside from making Ace uncomfortable.

"You're not going to do much against Ace's scaly hide," Rex said.

"All right, then," Yugi said. He drew a card from his deck. "I'm going to play a trap card, and summon a monster in face down position." Two larger cards appeared on the field; one of them was placed on its side.

_Oh, man,_ Rex thought, _which one do I attack first?_ He looked at the cards in front of him. _Well, that one next to Celtic Guardian has got to be his new monster, and I don't want to risk touching that trap card. Yeah, I'll go with the sideways one._ He opened his Dino Holder and revealed his card pack. One flew out into his hand. "Cyclone!" He swiped the card and watched as whirling winds surrounded Ace. The Carnotaurus ran at the flipped card.

"I now flip summon the monster I set down earlier: Big Shield Gardna!" A hunching figure appeared, holding a large shield in front of him. The shield blocked Ace's attack and he was forced back.

Rex gasped in surprise before saying, "Try again, Ace!"

"Not so fast," Yugi said, startling Rex. "I activate my trap card: Magical Hats!" Four giant top hats with question marks on them appeared, one of which placed itself over Gardna. The hats started shuffling positions so fast, Rex couldn't tell where Gardna was by the end.

"I hate this kind of game," Rex said to himself.

"As you may have already guessed," Yugi said, "Gardna is under only one of these hats. The other three are decoys: spell cards from my deck. I doubt you can find Gardna like this."

"But I can still attack your Celtic Guardian," Rex said half-convincingly. Ace ran at Celtic with the tornado still spinning. Celtic raised his sword in defense and swung. Although he still didn't do much, the sword damaged Ace just enough to reduce the tornadoes' power.

* * *

"Dino Slash!" Zoe quickly swiped the card across her holder. "Spring up, Parasaurolo phus!" Paris appeared out of nowhere and began to grow in size. Her hind legs grew longer and her crest extended farther. Her eyes flashed and a swirl of petals seemingly came out of them. She called out and faced her opponent, Alexis' Blade Skater.

"A very beautiful entrance," Alexis said, "and believe me, I know a lot about beauty and grace; my deck is full of it." Blade Skater slid along the forest floor using the blades attached to her feet. Grace and style were not a problem for her. Zoe was mesmerized by her moves until she saw her bring one of her arm blades down on Paris.

"Paris, quick!" Zoe yelled. Paris lowered her crest and blocked the blade's collision. Zoe breathed a sigh of relief.

"How did you like Blade Skater's Accel Slicer attack?" Alexis asked rhetorically.

"Well, if Paris can block it easily," Zoe said, "it obviously needs work."

"Let's see if this makes it better," Alexis said as she pulled a card out of her hand. "I play the spell card Angel Wing and equip it to Blade Skater." Two angel-like wings appeared on Blade's back. "This card increases the amount of damage my opponent takes." Blade flew up and swooped down on Paris, her blades ready to strike.

Paris surprised both Blade and Alexis by blocking the attack once again; this time, it was almost immediate. "How is this possible?"

"It's actually very easy," Zoe said. "When you tried to attack from the sky, you forgot that Paris' crest was already up there, making it much easier to block." Zoe immediately opened her holder and brought out a card. "Stomping Hammer!" Paris knocked Blade off her crest and jumped into the air. Blade crashed on the ground and barely got a chance to look up before Paris landed on top of her. Blade was destroyed upon impact.

Alexis looked at her duel disk; the points had fallen from 2000 to 1600. "Not bad," Alexis said, "but one good thing still comes out of this: when Angel Wing is sent to my graveyard, I get to draw a card." She drew and looked at it. "Now I'll play it facedown." A giant card appeared on the field. Zoe started to worry about what the card might be.

* * *

"Alpha Slash!" Zander yelled. "Gush out, Spinosaurus!" A young Spiny appeared and began to transform. His hind legs grew and his sail became larger. His eyes flashed like they were underwater. Spiny growled as Joey looked at what was unfolding before him.

"'Spinosaurus?'" he said. "Okay, that one just sounds made up."

"Think what you want," Zander said. "But Spiny here is the real deal."

"A Spinosaurus named Spiny," Joey said to himself as he looked through his hand. "That's original." He took out a card and placed it on his disk. "Okay, let's fight reptile with reptile: Alligator's Sword!" The humanoid lizard appeared on the field holding up an impressive blade.

Spiny ran up to Alligator's Sword and brought his head to its neck. He bit into it, causing the humanoid reptile to flail. "What is this thing, a vampire?" Joey said. "Fight back!" Alligator raised its sword and brought it down toward Spiny. Spiny just barely jumped out the way, but Alligator kept moving forward and attacking.

"We've got to stop that attack," Zander said, "and I know just the thing that will help." He pulled out his move card. "Shockwave!" Spiny started glowing a bright blue before he was surrounded in waves of swirling water. The vortex was then pushed outward toward the lizard- humanoid. Alligator was forced back by the waves and was unable to continue his attack. But, to Joey's relief, he was still active.

Joey looked in his hand and picked out a card. "Okay, I'll summon the Blue Flame Swordsman in attack mode." A large warrior appeared, wielding a blue sword. "Now things will get interesting, 'cause I'm gonna sacrifice his attack power by half and add it to Alligator's Sword." The sword started glowing and a strange energy flowed out, surrounding Alligator. The reptile roared with new power.

"Now, attack!" Alligator jumped and brought its sword up.

But Zander looked confident as he said, "That new power won't do you much good if you can't use it!" He took out another card and slid it across the scanner. "Futaba Super Cannon!" The ground in front of Spiny started glowing and something could be seen coming out of it: a head attached to a long neck, connected to the ground through a field of energy that resembled water.

"Let me guess," Joey said sarcastically, "Plesiosaurus?"

"Nope," Zander said, "_Futaba_saurus."

"Futabasaurus!" Joey said surprised. "Okay, that one is definitely fake. I mean, it sounds like something some preschooler made up."

"Once again," Zander said, "it's a real dinosaur, and so is its attack." Futaba opened its mouth and released a stream of water at Alligator. The blast was so powerful, the reptilian warrior was knocked back. When he hit the ground, he was destroyed. Joey lost 300 life points.

* * *

"Alpha Slash!" Ursula passed the card over the Alpha Scanner. "Blaze, Tyrannosaurus!" A small dinosaur appeared, surrounded in flames. It grew larger and looked like it had power to match. Terry's eyes flared when he grew to his full size. He roared and stared down at Kaiba.

"Nice," Kaiba said, "but if you were trying to scare me with an entrance like that, then you haven't seen true fear, not like what I'm about to show." He pulled a card out of his hand. "I start this battle by summoning Saggi the Dark Clown." A large, frightening clown appeared with a flourish of movements of his lanky appendages.

"Oh, I'm so scared," Ursula said sarcastically. "If you call that fearsome, I'd hate to see 'cute and cuddly.'"

"We'll see about that," Kaiba said. "Saggi, attack with Dark Light!" Saggi lifted his hands and an energy sphere formed between them. He pushed his hands forward, forcing the sphere toward Terry. The Tyrannosaurus was hit hard; even Ursula could feel the impact.

"Not bad, but let's see how you handle a Volcano Burst!" Ursula swiped the move card across her scanner. Terry began to glow a violent red. Kaiba watched as Terry breathed fire onto Saggi. The clown lifted his arms and braced against the attack.

"I thought I was battling a dinosaur, not a dragon!" Kaiba said angrily.

"Sorry," Ursula said, without a tone of apology in her voice. "Perhaps I should have mentioned that Terry's power is related to fire. Do you feel better, now?"

Kaiba grunted. _Now I know the Master is obviously losing it, inviting people like her to this place. She reminds me of Pegasus, playing me for a fool and simply joking about it later. First that Team Rocket bunch, and now this so-called Alpha Gang. I'd like to know what possessed him to do this._ Kaiba drew a card from his deck. He looked up and saw that Saggi had survived his ordeal with the Volcano Burst.

"Time to bring in some backup," Kaiba said. "I now summon Lord of Dragons." An imposing figure appeared, wearing what looked like the hide of a dragon. "Then I play my Negative Energy Generator spell card, increasing its attack points threefold." Lord of Dragons started surging with electrical power "Now I'll attack!" The dark figure jumped up and held out his hands, releasing a powerful lightning attack.

"Not so fast," Ursula said. "Time to give my new cards a test run." She pulled out a card and swiped it across her scanner. "Fire Cannon!" Terry opened his mouth and loosed a fireball at the attacking Lord of Dragons. The fireball went through the lightning and successfully hit him. The spellcaster was forced to stop his attack to brush the flames off his body.

_Just like Pegasus,_ Kaiba thought to himself.

_Just when I think I have her where I want her, she pulls a new trick up her sleeve._

_

* * *

_

Ed stood on the sidelines, trying to pay attention to all the battles going on all around him. He found it hard to concentrate on any one battle, let alone all of them.

"So, what do you think so far?" Ed turned to meet Jaden's face.

"I don't know," he said, "I think some of these rules are a little crooked."

"I can understand that," Mai interjected.

"How?" Ed asked her. "I thought you were all from the same world."

"Actually," Mai answered, "five of these guys came from the future. They have cards we've never even heard of before, so even we can't be sure how they work."

"Still, I wish you'd told us the rules first."

Jaden said quietly, "He's got a point. We at least had the decency to tell the last guys how the game worked."

Suddenly, everyone heard Chazz scoff loudly. "I think it's more than the actual rules he wants to know; more like how each individual card works. Listen, fat boy, we've got maybe hundreds of cards. You really expect us to tell you what they all do?"

"Chazz, knock it off," Bastion scolded. "Nevertheless, he is right. You'll have to learn to accept things as they happen." Ed thought about this as he attempted to watch the rest of the battles.

* * *

Max stood there watching Ambulanceroid drive circles around Chomp. Max could tell Chomp was feeling frustrated, wanting to attack but unable to do so without hitting the wrong target. _If only there was some way to hit them both._ Max quickly looked through his cards to see if he could hit both roids. All he could find was his Lightning Spear. Just then, Max got an idea.

"Chomp, get behind Decoyroid!" Chomp charged through Ambulanceroid's circle and positioned himself behind the tiny car. Max took out his card. "Lightning Spear!" Chomp started glowing and a bolt of electricity protruded through his horns. Chomp stuck the bolt through Decoyroid.

"Nice try, Max," Syrus said, "but you won't do any damage this way, and I can still bring it back."

"Not without that 9-1-1 wannabe, you can't," Max said. Syrus gave him a curious look. He looked at Ambulanceroid. It had stopped after Chomp escaped, and was now in the path of the spear. Unfortunately, it didn't see the bolt in time and got struck. Both Decoyroid and Ambulanceroid were destroyed at the same time. Syrus' life points dropped to 1600.

Syrus looked through his hand. "Okay, I now summon Steamroid in attack mode!" An old steam train appeared on the field.

"Now that's_ really_ ugly," Max said. Chomp charged at Steamroid. The train immediately got out of the way, but Chomp wasn't ready to quit yet.

_If only it wasn't 500 attack points weaker right now,_ Syrus thought. "I'll put down two trap cards." Two giant cards appeared on the field.

"Time to get serious," Max said. He pulled out another card. "Lightning Strike!" Chomp started glowing again and created a bolt of lightning, this time turning it into a long range attack. The bolt headed straight for Steamroid.

"Now I play my trap card, Life Force!" One of the giant cards flipped face up, revealing something that looked like a heart-shaped candy box. "It costs me four hundred life points, but it will ensure that I don't take damage this time around." Steamroid stopped and let the bolt hit him. The train was destroyed, but just like Syrus said, his life points were left untouched, save the cost of 400 to use the card. Syrus now had 1200 life points.

Syrus drew another card and said, "Now I'll play Expressroid in attack mode." Another train appeared, but this time it was an electric train. "And because I summoned him, two things happen. First, I take two roid monsters from my Graveyard into my hand." He pulled out Steamroid and Ambulanceroid. "Then I activate my trap card, Cyber Summon Blaster." A large tank sporting a satellite array appeared on the field. "For every machine type monster I summon, I can inflict damage." The tank fired a shot out of the satellite and hit Chomp. "And its effects last as long as it's out. So I'll add to it by summoning Steamroid back onto the field." The steam train reappeared as the tank fired another shot.

Chomp was hit and started suffering heavily. Max thought about the situation. _Let's see, that blaster thing hits Chomp every time he summons one of those freaky machines. I don't have many move cards left, so I'll have to save them._ He looked at Expressroid. It was in a straight line between Chomp and the tank. _Yeah, that'll work._ "Chomp, hit Expressroid!" Chomp roared and charged the electric train. He impaled it with his horns and threw it toward the tank. Both machines were destroyed by the collision.

"Okay," Syrus said with growing confidence, "now it's time to get serious."

* * *

Rex carefully examined the situation. Celtic Guardian had managed to reduce Ace's cyclone's power to barely a draft. Meanwhile, Big Shield Gardna was safely hiding within one out of the four hats in front of him. _Maybe if I can attack all the hats at once, I can find Gardna without much difficulty,_ he thought to himself.

Rex opened his card pack and pulled out one of his moves. "Ninja Attack!" Ace started glowing and ran toward the hats. He stopped in front of them and began running around them. Yugi thought his eyes were playing tricks on him as he saw multiple Carnotauruses.

_They must be moving so fast, it looks like I'm seeing a whole bunch of them._ Suddenly, all the Aces ran in toward the hats and started tackling them. For a second, it looked as though the multiples themselves were striking all four hats from every direction. Yugi's heart leapt when one of the hats was knocked over. Luckily, Ace hit the wrong hat, but it wouldn't be long before his attack dislodged the right hat from Gardna.

Yugi drew a card from his deck. He almost winced before looking at the image. He looked up; Ace was down to two hats. "I now remove my Magical Hats from the field." The two remaining hats disappeared, revealing Gardna. Ace started running towards the shield. "Now I sacrifice Big Shield Gardna and Celtic Guardian." Both warriors disappeared before Ace hit Gardna.

"What was the point of that?" Rex asked.

Yugi explained. "All monster cards have a certain number of levels that indicate their strength and power. Some monsters, however, have levels that are too high for us to summon directly. They require a certain number of monsters to be tributed depending on their level in order to summon them."

Rex didn't follow exactly what Yugi was saying, but he was sure he got the general idea. "So what are you bringing out?"

"With those sacrifices, I summon the Dark Magician!" The spellcaster appeared in a flash of light. "Dark Magic Attack!" Dark Magician raised his hand toward Ace and blasted him with his magic power. Ace flew backward, spinning on his side, and crashed.

Rex realized that Ace was in big trouble. He tried to think of a way to combat Dark Magician. He looked through his card pack and something caught his eye: it was one of the cards Max found earlier, the move the Alpha Gang called Tail Smash. Rex instinctively grabbed it and slid it across his holder. "Tail Smash!" Ace roared before leaning forward. Suddenly, he started spinning at an incredible rate.

Yugi didn't know what to expect, but he didn't have time to come up with a counter strategy. Ace swung his tail into Dark Magician. The magician flew into a nearby tree, but he didn't have time to rest.

"Go, Ace!" Rex yelled. Ace roared and charged at Dark Magician. He lowered his head and struck him using his horns. Dark Magician was destroyed, leaving Yugi with 1700 life points.

"Well, it's a start," Rex said.

"Maybe," Yugi returned, "but it certainly won't require a finish."

* * *

Alexis drew a card and put it on her duel disk. "I summon Cyber Tutu in attack mode." A young female dancer appeared and spun in place before striking a prefect, battle-ready pose.

_Amazing,_ Zoe thought, _it looks so human, at least more human than Blade Skater. Still, it's my opponent so…_ "Let's go, Paris!" Paris started running toward Tutu with her crest lowered.

"Cyber Tutu, jump!" The young ballerina leapt into the air and seemingly flew out of harm's way.

Zoe was frustrated at first, but then she got an idea. "Try again Paris," she said. Paris turned and attempted to charge her again.

"The definition of crazy is trying the same thing again and expecting a different result," Alexis said, as Tutu once again jumped up to safety.

"Quick question," Zoe said. "How do _you_ know it won't end differently?" She pulled out one of her move cards. "Metal Wing!" Suddenly, out of nowhere, three Pteranodons appeared and threw themselves at Tutu. The dancer was struck three times before being forced back to the ground.

"Not bad," Alexis said, "but now I activate my trap card: A Rival Appears!" But as the card flipped up, Alexis started to feel that she made a wrong move. _Wait. How do I know if this card will work?_

"It will work. Allow me to show you how." Alexis realized that she heard the Master's voice. As she looked at her opponents, she felt an odd sensation. She then realized that the Master had attributed a level to both Paris and the group of Pteranodons; levels she could use to carry out the actions of her trap card.

"So what does that do?" Zoe said, breaking Alexis' thoughts.

Alexis tried to push the recent happenings out of her head as she said, "This card allows me to summon a monster of a power level equal to that of an opponent's. And I select the power of your Pteranodons to summon Etoile Cyber!" Another female figure with the elegance of a dancer appeared. Zoe noticed that there were ribbons surrounding her arms.

"And just so you know, those ribbons aren't just for show," Alexis said, almost as though she had read Zoe's mind. Etoile whipped her arms toward Paris. The ribbons flew out and surrounded the Parasaurolophus, tying her up. Alexis smiled.

"You forgot something," Zoe said cautiously. She pointed up. The three Pteranodons swooped down and sliced the ribbons holding Paris. As Paris tried to shake the ribbons off her, the Pteranodons turned around for another attack. "Cyber Tutu won't last much longer," Zoe said to them. "Attack her." The Pteranodons flew towards Tutu as she braced herself for impact.

Alexis, realizing Zoe was right, drew a card. She looked at the image. She sighed as she said, "It's not Prima Light, but this should work out much better." She turned to Zoe. "I now sacrifice Cyber Tutu to summon Cyber Prima!" Tutu's form vanished just before the flying dinosaurs were upon her. In her place was another dancing female. "And I wouldn't rely too much on that so-called Metal Wing."

"Why's that?" Zoe asked.

"Normally, I tend to summon Cyber Prima through a card called Prima Light. But if I tribute summon her, like I just did, she can use a very special ability. In our world, she can remove spell cards that are in play. And because of this nagging feeling at the back of my head, I think your Pteranodons qualify." Prima jumped just as the Pteranodons were right in front of her. She kicked one of the flying reptiles and sent it crashing into its comrades. They all glowed a bright green and joined together into a small, single shape. The Metal Wing move card materialized and floated down to the ground.

* * *

Joey drew his next card. _Okay, Joey, get a grip. Let's see if I got everything so far: that Zander guy has Spinosaurus and "Futaba"saurus. The long neck one took out my Alligator's Sword. Meanwhile, my Blue Flame Swordsman has half its attack points, since the rest are with Alligator. Please tell me I can make a comeback._ He looked at the card he just drew. It was Graverobber. _This could be a long shot, but if I play my cards right, I can play his cards too._

"I set one trap card face down," Joey announced.

"And while you're doing that," Zander said, "I'll take out the guy with the sword. Futaba, attack!" ("This guy has got to think of better names," Joey said to himself.)

Futaba opened its mouth and released a jet of water aimed at Blue Flame Swordsman. As Joey expected, Swordsman didn't last long; he was destroyed almost immediately. Joey's life points dwindled to 1000 life points.

_I knew that attack loss would come back to bite me,_ Joey thought to himself. "Still," he said out loud, "this could work out for the better." Zander looked at Joey curiously. "I knew Blue Flame Swordsman wasn't going to last, but there is a good side to that, 'cause when he's beaten, he has a new monster take his place: the original Flame Swordsman!" A new figure appeared on the field. He looked exactly like Blue Flame Swordsman, but was red in color and a little bigger.

Zander seemed a little shocked at first, but he regained his composure and said, "No matter, I can still take that thing. Futaba!" Futaba immediately opened its mouth to launch its attack.

"I activate my trap card," Joey said. "Graverobber!" A small, impish creature appeared, holding what looked like a giant card. But this card looked familiar to Zander.

"Wait a minute!" Zander yelled as he realized what he was seeing. "That's my Shockwave card!"

Joey smiled. "Graverobber can take any card my opponent used and allow me to use it." A swirling mass of water surrounded Flame Swordsman just as Futaba released its attack. The water stream collided with the vortex. "And that's not even the best part," Joey said. "I figured that this card was used as a defensive tactic. That's why I chose this card. But thanks to the water from that Loch Ness copycat, the vortex should get bigger." True to Joey's word, with each gallon on water coming from Futaba, the vortex around Swordsman grew bigger.

"Now, Flame Swordsman, attack Futabasaurus!" Swordsman ran up to Futaba with the Shockwave still growing. The fire warrior moved closer until the vortex finally collided with Futabasaurus. The power of the water proved too great for the dinosaur to handle, and it immediately disappeared in a flash of blue light.

"All right!" Joey said. "Hit Spiny with Flaming Sword of Battle!" The warrior's sword began to glow a deep red. He brought the sword so that it faced the Spinosaurus before launching a stream of flames. Spiny started to suffer under the attack's immense power.

* * *

Kaiba looked through his hand. He pulled out one of his trap cards. "Okay, I'll put this facedown. Make your next move in fear."

Ursula smiled. "We'll see about that." Terry roared and charged toward Saggi. The clown had already suffered heavy damage from the dinosaur's Volcano Burst attack. At this point, Ursula thought, anything could defeat it.

Kaiba also realized that Saggi wouldn't last much longer. But he called into question Terry's power. _So far, that dinosaur's made two moves, both of them attacks that she could put a name to, as well as moves she had to use cards for. This one looks like a standard assault. I just pray I'm right._ Kaiba watched as Terry closed in on Saggi. The Tyrannosaurus opened its mouth and roared before closing it on top of the dark clown. Saggi convulsed in pain before disappearing from view.

_Blast!_ Kaiba thought. _I knew I shouldn't have hesitated._ Kaiba looked down at his duel disk; he had lost 800 life points, leaving him with 1200. _And that did way more than it should have._ But Kaiba's frustration had another focal point; his disdain for Ursula's presence.

"Now, Terry, take out that dinosaur costume party wannabe," Ursula commanded. Terry ran for Lord of Dragons.

"Not this time," Kaiba said with determination. "I activate my Shadow Spell trap card." A field of energy poured out of the flipped card and surrounded Terry. Slowly, Terry found himself unable to move. "Shadow Spell temporarily prevents my opponent from attacking. It may not defeat you, but it might give me time to plan a new strategy."

"Strategy?" Ursula said. "Is that what you call it?" Kaiba grunted. He didn't like how Ursula said that. "Face it, ever since we started, all you've done is attack head on and power up your attacks. I don't call that strategy, I call that power-building."

Kaiba started growling. Suddenly, he yelled, "Don't patronize me! That's all _you've_ done since we started. I'll be honest with you: I don't understand why the Master allowed the likes of you to come here. That Max character mentioned to us that he doesn't fully trust you, and I've known too many people who can't be trusted. Now I'll show you what I think of people like you." Kaiba drew a card from his deck. "And I'll do it by playing this spell card: The Flute of Summoning Dragon!" A strange instrument appeared in front of Lord of Dragons. The spell-caster blew into it, producing a deep tone. "When my Lord of Dragons is on the field, I can use this card to summon two dragon monsters from my deck. And I know just the two." Two flashes of light appeared on the ground. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Two large, silver-white dragons sprung up out of the flashes, flanking Lord of Dragons.

"What?" Ursula said in surprise at the sight of both dragons. "You mean you can have more than one thing?"

"I can have up to three of the same card per deck," Kaiba said. It didn't take Ursula long to figure out what else was in his deck. "Pray the third one doesn't show up, because if it does, things could get ugly for you."

Ursula glanced back at Terry. Terry was just beginning to move again. "Hurry, Terry," she said in a worried voice, "take one of those dragon things down, and quick!" Terry launched itself at one of the Blue-Eyes.

Kaiba chuckled a little. "Nice try. White Lightning!" Both Blue-Eyes opened their mouths and launched bolts of electricity at Terry. The dinosaur froze as the lightning overtook him. Terry was launched backwards by the attacks' combined power. Kaiba smiled.

* * *

Syrus drew another card from his deck at set it on the field. "I play Gyroid in attack mode." A small helicopter appeared above the field. "Now I'll have it attack your Triceratops." Gyroid flew towards Chomp, lowering its spinning blades on top of him. The dinosaur's scaly hide resisted as much as it could, but Chomp could still feel the pain.

Max took out one of his move cards. "Electric Charge!" Chomp roared as he started glowing. A bolt of lightning appeared between his horns and formed into a ball. Chomp raised the ball toward Gyroid and surrounded it. An explosion could be heard from inside the lightning. Chomp quickly moved back to avoid the blast. Syrus' life points dropped to 800.

Max smiled to himself. "That's one less thing we'll have to worry about."

But Syrus was also smiling. "Not quite." The smoke cleared and Max was met with an unpleasant surprise: Gyroid was still on the field.

"What?" Max yelled. "But that thing should be spare parts!"

"It would," Syrus said, "if Gyroid didn't have its ability, which prevents it from being destroyed by battle."

Syrus drew his next card. "Time to end this match," he said. "I play the spell card Polymerization!" Max didn't know what to expect, but he could tell it wouldn't end well. He saw Steamroid and Gyroid breaking apart and spiraling, like they were being mixed together "This card allows me to fuse my Steamroid and Gyroid into one, powerful monster: Steam Gyroid!" When the spiraling stopped, both monsters were indeed fused together; Steam Gyroid had the body of Steamroid and the propeller and limbs of Gyroid.

"Now, Steam Gyroid, attack with Train Twister!" The train-helicopter hybrid started spinning its blades, forming a tornado above them. It hovered along the ground at high speed and lowered the tornado onto Chomp. Max looked down at his Dino Holder: Chomp's picture was blinking red.

"We have to finish this up, quick!" Max said to himself.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Syrus said. "Because if you do, Ambulanceroid will bring it back to the field." He set a card on his duel disk and Ambulanceroid reappeared.

_There's got to be a way to do enough damage in one move,_ Max thought. _If only I knew how damage works. It's possible that a stronger move will do more damage. Thunder Bazooka's my best card, but how can I ensure that it will take him out?_ Just then, he started getting an idea. He couldn't explain the logic, but he figured that if he did enough minor damage, he could use Thunder Bazooka to finish off Steam Gyroid and end the battle as well.

"Chomp, hit it!" Max commanded. Chomp roared and ran to Steam Gyroid. He lowered his horns and struck the machine. Steam Gyroid retaliated, but Chomp moved out of the way just in time. Chomp jumped on top of the train where its propeller laid. The blades were crushed by the weight.

All the while, Max kept a close eye on the mutant machine. He still couldn't explain his newfound logic, but he knew when it would be time to use his move card. Until then, he remained patient. Suddenly, something sprang inside him; he knew that Steam Gyroid was weakening.

He opened his card pack and pulled out his card. "Thunder Bazooka!" Chomp glowed and jumped up. His body became surrounded in electricity. The dinosaur started spinning on his side and rammed into Steam Gyroid. The train convulsed from the high voltage before disappearing. Syrus looked at his duel disk. The life point counter dropped down to zero.

Syrus shut off his disk and walked toward Max, who was recalling Chomp back to his younger form. "Congratulations on winning," he said.

"Thanks," Max said. "You're not so bad yourself, really."

"One question," Syrus said. "How did you beat my Steam Gyroid so easily?"

Max thought for a second. "Well, I don't know, really. It just… came to me."

* * *

Yugi drew his next card and put it on the field. "I play Feral Imp in attack mode." A strange creature appeared in front of Rex and Ace. Rex thought it looked like something out of an old horror movie. Ace tried charging it, but Imp proved hard to land a hit on.

"Now watch this," Yugi said. "I play the spell card, Horn of the Unicorn, increasing my Imp's attack points by 700." The small horn on Imp's head grew longer. "Magic Lightning Attack!" Feral Imp's horn began to glow with electricity. Suddenly, the electricity Imp was producing became a concentrated lightning bolt.

"Get out of the way, Ace," Rex said. Ace tried to run away from the coming bolt, but it still managed to hit his tail. Ace was in considerable pain, but still okay.

But Rex knew that if Ace was attacked like that one more time, this battle would soon be over. Rex looked through his move cards. Then, he saw something that he thought could turn the battle in his favor. He pulled it out of his holder and activated it. "Tag Team!" There was a flash of light and another dinosaur appeared, one that Yugi thought looked like an Ankylosaurus. "In case you're wondering," Rex said, "this is a Pawpawsaurus. And this dinosaur is the ultimate defense."

"We'll see about that," Yugi said. _If I try to hit Pawpawsaurus, I may end up just wasting time._ "Feral Imp, attack Carnotaurus!" Imp started charging up its electrical power. But the next thing any of them knew, Pawpawsaurus jumped in front of Ace. Imp unwittingly fired the bolt at the defending dinosaur. Ace took the opportunity and ran from Imp's attack.

"What's happening?" Yugi said. "I said to attack Carnotaurus."

"When I said this dinosaur was the ultimate defense," Rex said, "I wasn't exaggerating. Pawpawsaurus will actually jump in front of its teammates and protect them from anything. And you won't believe how much punishment it can take. The only thing that can probably beat it would be a building falling on top of it."

Yugi, trying to retain his confidence, humorously said, "Then I guess it's a bad thing that I don't have any buildings in this deck." He drew a card from his deck and said, "But I do have something else." Rex looked at him curiously. "Refresh my memory; Pawpawsaurus defends its teammates by moving in front of them, right?"

"Rrright…" Rex said hesitantly.

"But suppose it couldn't move from its current spot?" Yugi said. Rex knew he was taunting him.

"Just get on with it!" Rex said impatiently.

"Very well." Yugi held up the card he just drew. "I play a spell card: The Swords of Revealing Light!" Suddenly, an assortment of swords, made of light, surrounded both Ace and Pawpawsaurus. "This card temporarily immobilizes my opponents, which should allow me just enough time to take out your Carnotaurus."

Rex seemed taken aback. _He's right. If Pawpawsaurus can't move, then he can't defend Ace from Yugi's attacks._

"But just to ensure victory," Yugi said, "I sacrifice My Feral Imp to summon the Dark Magician Girl!" Feral Imp disappeared and in his place was a young female dressed like Dark Magician.

Rex looked at her and asked, "So how is she any different from the male version?"

"What you are looking at is the apprentice of the Dark Magician," Yugi answered. "And this apprentice has a deep link with her master. When Dark Magician is in the graveyard, her attack points increase by 300, which now gives me quite an advantage. Dark Magician Girl, attack with Dark Burning!" The tip of the female spellcaster's wand lit up as she pointed it toward Ace. The wand released a wave of magic fire. Ace's body was surrounded by the flames. After the fire lifted, Ace fell from exhaustion.

Yugi was surprised to see Ace's body turn into a bright, blue light, which shrunk before dissolving into a card. Pawpawsaurus also did the same thing. Rex ran into the battlefield to get the cards. Yugi shut off the power to his duel disk before joining Rex.

Rex slid Ace's card across his holder, bringing him in his younger form. "Will Ace be all right?" Yugi said.

"He should be fine," Rex said. "But that was a pretty intense battle. I guess my problem is that I don't take to surprises too well. If I did, maybe I would've found a way out of that sword trap."

"Don't take it too hard," Yugi said. "Remember, we'll all be facing things that seem unusual to us. But it's how we face them that matters in this battle."

* * *

Zoe was shocked to see her Pteranodons beaten with a single strike; Cyber Prima's attack didn't even look that powerful. But she remained defiant to the last. "You haven't won until Paris is beaten, Alexis. And so far, I don't see that happening." She clenched tight to her Dino Holder.

"That may be," Alexis said as she drew another card, "but I don't plan on making it easy. I play a spell card: The Warrior Returning Alive! Now I can summon one warrior monster back from the graveyard. And I summon Blade Skater!" There was a flash and the figure of Blade Skater appeared once more.

"No problem," Zoe said confidently. "We beat it before and we can beat it again." Paris lowered her crest.

"Sorry Zoe, but you won't have time to beat her," Alexis said. "There's a special reason I wanted Blade Skater out right now. The card I just drew is Polymerization, a spell card that allows me to fuse two of my monsters together to create a new, more powerful one. And the monsters I pick are Blade Skater and Etoile Cyber." Zoe looked at the two dancing warriors; their forms started dissolving and spiraling together. When it was over, a new warrior took their place. "Zoe, meet Cyber Blader."

Zoe was a little shaken at first, since she didn't know what to expect. But she realized that simply waiting for her opponent to make a move could be a big mistake. "Paris, go get her!" she yelled. Paris called out and ran toward the skater.

"Two can play at that game," Alexis said. "Cyber Blader, Whirlwind Rage!" Cyber Blader ran along the ground and started spinning, creating a large tornado. When the two opponents were close together, they started striking each other with everything they had. Whenever it seemed like one of them had the advantage, the other began to make a comeback.

Paris was finally able to knock Cyber Blader out of her way, and if Zoe was right, it should have finished her off. But a few seconds after she landed, Cyber Blader was able to stand up, even better than when Paris landed her last blow.

"What?" Zoe said in astonishment. "How? She should have been beaten by now."

"She was," Alexis said. She held up her duel disk. The life point counter read 1100.

"Then how come…?"

"Cyber Blader has a very unique ability; whenever there is only one opponent, she can't be destroyed by an attack." She then ordered Cyber Prima to finish off Paris.

Zoe started to panic, but then she thought of something. "Wait, so that effect only happens when there's _only_ one?" Alexis nodded slowly. "Then it's time to level the playing field." She activated her card pack and one of her cards flew out. "Big Foot Assault!" Paris roared before a large sauropod dropped down. One of its feet landed on Prima, destroying her and leaving Alexis with 700. "Now you're vulnerable," Zoe taunted.

"Not quite," Alexis returned, causing a confused look in Zoe. "Cyber Blader, attack!" The skating warrior ran toward Seismosaurus and kicked. To Zoe's surprise, the large dinosaur was easily knocked around by Blader's attacks.

"Perhaps I forgot to mention something," Alexis said. "Since there are _two_ opponents on the field, Cyber Blader does lose her invulnerability, but her attack points have now doubled."

Zoe started to panic and shouted, "Paris, hit her with everything you've got!" Paris lowered her crest and attempted to charge Blader. The skating figure saw Paris out of the corner of her eye. She glided toward the approaching dinosaur. When the two competitors were on top of each other, Paris thrust her head forward while Blader spun into a kick. Both attacks connected.

Both Paris and Blader flew in opposite directions immediately after impact. Paris landed in the forest behind Zoe. Suddenly, the area were Paris landed glowed a bright green. Zoe ran to see if her dinosaur was okay. But as she expected, she found a card with a picture of a Parasau rolo phus. She ran back to the battlefield to tell Alexis.

When she got back, she wasn't surprised to see Seismosaurus gone as well. But what did surprise her was that Cyber Blader was nowhere to be seen either.

"I figured that Paris was down," Alexis explained. "Once the big guy disappeared, I knew that Paris couldn't have been active."

Zoe picked up the Seismosaurus and Pteranodon cards and walked toward Alexis. "Good job on that battle," she said. "You really seemed to know how to make everything work."

Alexis blushed slightly. "I just wish I knew _how_ I knew it."

* * *

Despite the fact that Spiny had taken plenty of damage from Flame Swordsman's attack, the dinosaur was still able to stand. Joey stood surprised at Spiny's resilience.

Meanwhile, Zander, relieved that Spiny was still okay, said, "All right, you've had your chance, now it's my turn." He took out one of his move cards. "Tail Smash!" He slid the card against his Alpha Scanner. Spiny started to glow before spinning at high speed. The Spinosaurus held out its tail and brought it to Flame Swordsman.

Swordsman brought up its sword to shield against the attack. Spiny's tail slammed against the sword and almost knocked it out of Swordsman's hands. Joey started to worry; if Spiny did that again, there was little hope that he could win.

He drew a card and looked at the image. A faint glimmer of hope sparked within him. _Time to rely an my luck for this._ "I now summon a new monster to the field: Battle Warrior." An impressive and powerful figure appeared next to Flame Swordsman. "Next I play the spell card Star Blaster!" A small, impish creature appeared, holding a large die. "First I sacrifice one monster…" Battle Warrior disappeared. "…then this little guy rolls the die." The creature threw the die onto the field. "The number it lands on, added to the number of the tributed monster's level, determines the level of the monster I'm allowed to summon."

Both opponents waited anxiously for the die to stop. To Joey, landing on any number could turn the tide of this battle. Zander, on the other hand, was anxious, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly, the die stopped bouncing and landed on…

"Four!" Joey almost yelled. "Yes! That was just the number I needed. Because with Battle Warrior's level three and the number four giving me seven, I can now summon the Red-Eyes Black Dragon." A large, black dragon appeared and roared. Zander couldn't help but feel an atmosphere of power about Red-Eyes.

"Time to put that old fossil out of its misery," Joey said with confidence. "Inferno Fire Blast!" Red-Eyes opened its mouth and unleashed a ball of fire headed straight for Spiny. Spiny braced himself as the fireball surrounded him.

Miraculously, Spiny was still standing as the flames faded away. "What?" Joey yelled in surprise. "How'd that happen? That was probably my best attack."

Zander, too, was curious as to how Spiny survived not one but two intense fire attacks. But then, something came to him. "Well," he started casually, "it could be because Spiny's power is based on water, so your fire based attacks might not be as effective as you'd like."

"You've got to be kidding me," Joey said. "Just because your attacks are water, I can't do anything?"

"Oh, I'm sure you did something," Zander said, "but it's just not enough." He turned his attention to Spiny. "Grab that sword!" Spiny ran over to Flame Swordsman and opened his mouth. When his head was next to the sword, he chomped down and removed it from Swords-man's hands. He flung his head and released it, sending it towards Red-Eyes. The blade made contact and left a huge scar where it passed.

"That helps," Zander said. He pulled out his move card. "Neck Crusher!" Spiny glowed and ran towards Red-Eyes. He lowered his head so that it was under the dragon's body. Spiny pushed his head upwards and lifted Red-Eyes into the air. When Red-Eyes came back down, Spiny quickly turned around, letting his tail connect with the dragon's neck.

Red-Eyes must have been severely weakened by the sword, because Spiny's attack managed to knock it a considerable distance away. Red-Eyes landed on top of the defenseless Flame Swordsman. The collision between the two weakened monsters destroyed them both. Worried, Joey looked at his duel disk; his life points dropped to zero.

"Oh, man," Joey said to himself, "that didn't go well." He lifted his head to Zander, who was now recalling Spiny. "Still, good job." He walked toward him as he said, "Not many people can brag that they've beaten my Red-Eyes, especially like that."

Zander put away his card and Alpha Scanner and said, "It wasn't too hard; I just figured what a dragon's one weakness is."

Joey thought about it for a second and said, "What, you mean like a sword? I guess that does beat a dragon any day."

Suddenly, they both heard a roar from not too far away. "Oh boy," Joey said nervously. "I'd know that roar anywhere." He turned to Zander. "Looks like that old lady's in big trouble."

* * *

Ursula thought she could hear someone calling her old, but the roaring of both Blue-Eyes White Dragons made it difficult to be sure.

Terry finally recovered from the lightning. He stood up and faced his opponents, but if the battle kept continuing like this, he wasn't going to last much longer.

Feeling confident, Kaiba drew another card. To his luck, it was the third Blue-Eyes. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have any cards that would allow him to summon it. He set it aside for now and watched as Terry tried another useless charge.

Terry opened his mouth, ready to bite one of the dragons. But the other dragon lowered his head and head-butted the Tyrannosaurus away. Terry stood back up, but he was still in pain.

"Ready to give up yet?" Kaiba asked.

"Not by a long shot," Ursula answered determinedly. But she realized that Terry couldn't take out either dragon without the other defending. "Terry, change of plans," she shouted. "Go after the one in the middle." Terry turned toward Lord of Dragons. He roared and charged.

Ursula pulled out her move card. "Tail Smash!" Terry glowed before spinning along the ground. The Tyrannosaurus was moving so fast, the two Blue-Eyes couldn't stop him from reaching the Lord of Dragons. Terry slammed his tail against the costumed spellcaster and destroyed him. Kaiba was left with 700 life points.

Kaiba growled in anger. "Blue-Eyes, attack him with White Lightning!" The dragons released their intense electricity. Terry tried to run away, but he became trapped by the lightning. The electricity caused Terry immense pain before throwing him back to Ursula. Ursula breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Terry get back up on his feet, but she was not as relieved to find her Alpha Scanner blinking red.

But Kaiba wasn't pleased at all. "Fall!" he shouted. "Why won't you fall?"

Ursula smiled unconvincingly and said, "Well, he is the most powerful species of dinosaur, you know."

"SHUT UP!" Kaiba yelled. ("That guy needs to switch to decaf," Ursula said to herself.)

Kaiba pulled another card out of his deck furiously. He looked at the picture. "I'm going to end this nonsense now," he said. "I play the spell card Polymerization." The two Blue-Eyes started to glow. "Remember what I said about not meeting the third Blue-Eyes?" Kaiba asked. Ursula didn't answer. "Well, I've got it right here." He turned over one of his cards to show her the dreaded dragon. "Polymerization is a card that allows me to fuse any number of monsters on the field or in my hand and create a better, stronger monster." The third Blue-Eyes appeared on the field and began glowing as well. All three dragons roared as their bodies came together, fused in a white light. When it was over, Ursula met a truly terrifying sight: a dragon with three heads! "Allow me to introduce you to my best monster: Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" All three heads roared with power.

Ursula stood frozen in fear for a few seconds. When she regained her awareness, she said nervously, "Okay, what I said before about not being scary? I take it all back!"

"As well you should," Kaiba returned. "Go, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Attack with Neutron Blast!" The three-headed dragon roared and opened its mouths. Out of each mouth came a powerful beam. The three blasts fused together into a single attack. Terry tried to run from the beam as quick as he could. The Tyrannosaurus just managed to avoid the full brunt of the attack, but still got hit.

Ursula started to panic. She knew that if Terry was even glanced by the beam once more, this battle could be over very soon. But she was too scared to do anything.

"This is it," Kaiba said triumphantly. "Looks like I win…" He paused. "Old lady."

Ursula felt a sudden pang of anger and surprise. She clenched her fist tight. "That's it," she said almost in a whisper. "You, sir, have just made one big mistake." She pulled a move card out of her Alpha Scanner. "Fire Bomb!" she yelled with a newfound confidence. Terry started to glow before jumping high. His mouth began to glow with fire. As he descended, he pointed his head toward Blue-Eyes and began to spin slowly. The triple-headed dragon looked up in curiosity.

"Time to end this," Kaiba said. "Neutron Blast!" The dragon unleashed its attack onto the falling Tyrannosaurus. As he and the beam were about to collide, Terry felt himself being moved to the side as he passed. "What?" Kaiba yelled in surprise. Terry continued his fall until he hit the body of Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. The flames passed from his mouth to the dragon. All three heads roared in pain. Then, to both competitors' surprise, the dragon vanished.

Kaiba check his life point counter. He simply whispered, "Zero."

Ursula was still in a stated of shock when she asked, "Does… that… mean I won?"

Kaiba didn't even look at Ursula. "Yeah," he said, "you win." Ursula breathed a sigh of relief. "But I don't see why," he suddenly said. "Someone like you shouldn't have won."

"Someone like me?" Ursula said offended.

"Someone you can't trust," Kaiba explained. "If your own teammates can't trust you completely, then why should I?"

"Oh, and of course we're all just one, big, happy family," said a voice behind him. Kaiba turned to find Joey coming to their battle site. Everyone else, duelists and dinosaur controllers, was behind him.

"What's that supposed to mean, Wheeler?" Kaiba asked indignantly.

"Let's face it," Joey said, "for some of us, we trust you about as far as we can throw you. Heck, I don't know _why_ you're here, if we're all supposed to be buds with everyone else."

Yugi stepped up and approached Kaiba. "Listen, Kaiba, if we can't learn to trust our opponents, our future allies, we won't be able to win against the Atrocity. Perhaps this is just one of many things the Master is trying to teach us in preparation."

"Well reasoned, Yugi," the Master said, "but not my true purpose. Within everyone who is brought to the Crossroad of Worlds, I sense the heart of a true warrior. Although everyone differs in goals, methods, and personalities, they possess qualities that are befitting of a great fighter. If they were a true threat, I would not have allowed them here, even if they were affected by whatever method I used to bring you all here."

Kaiba simply grunted and walked away from Ursula. "Are we going to stand around all day with this sentimental stuff, or are we going now?"

"That guy's got a point," Jaden said. "We gotta get moving." The duelists turned and shook hands with the dinosaur controllers before walking in Kaiba's direction.

But before they left, Yugi turned to Max and his group and said, "May the heart of the cards be with you all."

Once they were out of sight, Jaden turned to Yugi. "Quick question; you didn't say _that_ to the last guys we fought. Any reason for that?"

Yugi simply smiled and said, "I believe you already know the reason, Jaden."

**One thing I love about stories, it's those hidden messages you can't define with words alone. Next week, Ash and Co. will face off against the ninjas of the Hidden Leaf Village.**


	12. R2B2 Power Struggle

**Welcome, all ye anime fanboys (and girls). This chapter features matches between Pokemon and Naruto.**

**Disclaimer-I don't own these shows (especially not Naruto).**

**Battle 2-Power Struggle**

The Pokémon Trainers were using a teleportation system when the Master had given his speech. "Good thing everyone's healed," Dawn said. "Saves us looking for a Pokémon Center."

Brock had just finished getting and returning his Pokémon. "Hey, Ash, your turn."

Ash simply said, "No thanks."

Everyone looked at him. "What do you mean, Ash?" May asked.

"I already know what Pokémon I'll be using: Buizel." Ash held out Buizel's Poké Ball. "He didn't do so well in that last battle. Yugi managed to outclass us at every turn and make our attacks useless. I just want to give him a chance to do better this time around."

Ash replaced the Poké Ball on his belt and waited for everyone else to finish their prepara tions. He thought about his battle with Yugi. It wasn't the first time Buizel had been beaten this badly. He remembered that first time, when Buizel still belonged to Dawn; he was battling against Lucian of the Sinnoh Elite Four. Lucian's Bronzong was probably the toughest opponent he'd ever faced, and he didn't cope well with the idea of losing. It wasn't entirely his fault though; Dawn just didn't know how to handle a Pokémon of Buizel's temperament. They did make a slight comeback the second time, even if Lucian called the battle in a draw. Ash knew that if Buizel was given another chance at battling, then he could do better and make up for the disastrous results of the last bout. Ash knew he probably wouldn't be able to battle Yugi again, but he would make the most of it, and this time, Buizel would have a battle worthy of his skills.

"Hey, Ash, will you quit daydreaming?" Gary's voice broke Ash's thoughts. "Come on, let's get going."

Ash smiled confidently and walked in the direction the group was going.

A little while later they heard some rustling in the bushes. They all instinctively looked in that direction. To their relief, it was just Team Rocket.

"How did things go?" Misty asked.

"Not that good," Jessie said.

"Actually," Meowth said, "I'm pretty sure I heard something when we were coming back."

"And that's why I said 'not that good,'" Jessie said, "because _you_ couldn't tell what that 'something' was."

"Well, that could be because my sense of hearing is only slightly better than my sense of smell, and I don't even have a nose."

"Anyway," James interrupted, "we were hoping to use Pikachu's ears to get a better idea of what we're dealing with." "Pi?"

"Can you take us to where you were at the time?" Dawn asked.

"Relax," Meowth said. "It's lucky for you I've got a photographic memory." Everyone followed as Team Rocket went into the trees.

"This is a bad idea, isn't it?" Misty remarked.

"Maybe, but we don't have a better one," Ash reasoned. "Pika."

* * *

"Man, this is getting boring," Naruto said out loud. He and the others followed Kakashi through the thick trees.

"Patience is a virtue, Naruto," Kakashi said to him. "It would do you well to learn that. Try thinking about something else for a change."

"All right," Naruto said, still bored, "I'll try." A few seconds passed before he suddenly said, "Hey, who wants to hear about my battle with that Knuckles guy?"

"Nobody," Sakura said, "but you'll probably tell us anyway."

"You're right; I will," Naruto said. Sakura sighed as Naruto got into his story.

Ino interrupted him in the middle of it to remind him that everyone was well aware of what happened and who won. "Maybe," he said, "but it isn't like everyone knows _exactly_ what happened."

Naruto continued. "So then, just as we were about to lay the final punch on each other, I…"

"Naruto, be quiet!" Sasuke hissed.

Naruto suddenly stopped and said, "Hey, what makes you think you can just tell me to 'shut up' whenever you want?"

"First of all, I just said, 'Be quiet,'" Sasuke pointed out in a whisper. "Second, I'm trying to make out what they're saying and it's hard to hear with you shooting your mouth off."

Naruto simply turned and crossed his arms angrily. "Yeah, well they can just wait till I'm…" Just then, he realized something. "Wait, who's 'they?'"

"Maybe if you were not talking," Rock pointed out, "you would know." Naruto muttered under his breath in anger and embarrassment.

He and the others followed Sasuke to where he was standing, hoping to listen to what it was that he had heard. "They're in this direction," Sasuke said. He led them to another section of the forest where everyone else started to hear voices.

Soon the strangers came into view. "Good, looks like we're battling actual people this time around," Ino said. She smiled to herself.

Sakura saw Ino's face and read it almost immediately. "I'm not so sure you should be that confident, Ino," she said. Ino started to take offense before hearing Rock's voice.

"She was not trying to provoke you, Ino. Look at them." Ino looked up at the strangers as they passed. "Their state of dress and mannerisms are unbecoming of a typical warrior. And the one with the hat has some sort of creature on his head, which I doubt is there just for show."

Sasuke reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai. "We'll know much more about our opponents if we just get this underway already."

Kakashi shot him a stern look. "If you're going to 'introduce' yourself again, I don't want you using kunai; you might hit somebody."

Sasuke simply replaced the knife in his pouch and said, "Fine."

Kakashi noticed that he never took his hand out his pouch. "No shuriken either." Sasuke pulled his hand out and grunted in disappointment. "This time, we do it the old fashioned way."

* * *

Ash noticed that Pikachu was feeling pretty restless; he kept looking around as though he heard something. "Hey, Pikachu, what's up?" "Pika chu," his Pokémon said, as if to say, "I'm not sure."

Ash and everyone else tried to figure out what Pikachu heard, assuming he did hear something. When they found nothing, they decided to keep walking.

But Pikachu was confident that he heard voices. He felt them close by, almost as if they were right next to them. "Master, why are we following them like this?"

"Because, Naruto, I want to see how well they react to surprises."

Pikachu noticed that the voices _were_ close. He looked behind him. "Pikachu!"

May noticed Pikachu's cry and turned in the direction he was facing. She jumped back in surprise when she saw six people following them. She crashed into her teammates and knocked them all over.

"Hey," Jessie yelled from the front, "what's the big idea, twerp?"

"Hey, it's not _my_ fault these guys snuck up on me," May said back. Everyone looked in May's direction and saw the strangers that she and Pikachu found.

"My apologies for startling you," the oldest one said. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, J ōnin level ninja. These are my students: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Ino Yamanaka and Rock Lee."

Ash had just removed himself from the heap and said, "I'm Ash." He watched everyone else get up before continuing. "Meet Brock, Dawn, Misty, May, Gary, and, of course, my buddy Pikachu." "Pika-Pikachu."

"Hey, what are we?" Jessie asked angrily. "Chopped liver?"

"Oh," Ash said, "and Jessie, James and…"

"No need to introduce me," Meowth chimed in. "Meowth can make an introduction all his own."

"Hold it!" Naruto almost yelled. "Did that thing just talk?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Ash said. Naruto opened his mouth like he was about to say something.

"And no," Gary said, "Not every other Pokémon can speak like a human being." Naruto slowly withdrew.

Rock approached the group. "I have just one question; what exactly _are_… Pikachu and Meowth." Rock struggled to get the names out, as he was unfamiliar with the words.

"They're called Pokémon," Brock said.

Kakashi approached Ash and stared closely at Pikachu. He closed his visible eye. Both Ash and Pikachu began to feel more than a little uncomfortable. Kakashi opened his eye, backed away, and said, "I can sense in these creatures an amazing power. I imagine our battle will not be an easy one."

"Maybe not," Sakura said, "but there's only two of them. I don't mean to sound rude, but this battle won't be much if it's just the ones we can see."

"Don't worry," Misty interjected, "it won't be."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

May pulled out one of her Poké Balls. "See, the rest of our Pokémon are actually in these Poké Balls."

Ino suddenly said, "I have to ask; what exactly are Pokémon used for?"

"Well," Dawn answered, "sometimes they're our battle partners, and sometimes they're just partners, our good friends."

_Friends?_ Ino tried to look as indifferent as possible, but something about the way Dawn answered her question made her feel unsure of this new group of opponents.

"So, let me guess how this is gonna work," Naruto said, changing the subject to the upcoming battle. "We win when your Pokémon things fall, right?"

"Yeah, that's the basic idea," Ash confirmed. "And just to be fair, we'll only use one Pokémon, that way you guys won't be outnumbered in the long run."

"Then let us begin," the Master's voice called out. "The pairings for these matches will go as follows: Ash and Naruto; Gary and Sasuke; Dawn and Ino; Jessie and Sakura; and James and Rock. Battlers take your positions." All five pairs of opponents went to a different section of forest in the area. Ash handed Pikachu to Brock so it could watch everybody.

"Three…" The Pokémon Trainers retrieved their Poké Balls. "Two…" The ninjas stood in a battle stance. "One… start the battle!"

"Buizel, I choose you!" Ash threw his Poké Ball and released his Pokémon. "Bui bui!" Buizel flashed a pose that indicated his spirit and strength.

But Naruto was less than convinced. "You've gotta be kidding me," he said. "You mean I have to fight a little weasel?"

"I called it a _Buizel,"_ Ash said darkly.

"Still, it doesn't look like much," Naruto insisted. Buizel suddenly jumped. "Buiii!" It shot a stream of water out of its mouth that collided with Naruto and forced him backward. The young ninja landed flat on his back.

Naruto crawled back up and said, "Okay, no one gets away with a stunt like that, espe cially something that hardly even comes up to my knee." Naruto stood up and charged with his hand in a fist.

"Buizel, use Aqua Jet!" Ash commanded. Buizel surrounded itself in a field of water and launched itself toward Naruto.

Naruto prepared to lay his first punch, but Buizel's water stream could be seen running around him. Naruto tried to make at least one connection, but the Water-type Pokémon was just too fast. To make matters worse, Buizel started landing a few strikes itself.

Frustrated, Naruto pulled some shurikan out of his pouch and threw them at Buizel. However, Buizel managed to dodge most of them, and the ones that hit were thrown off course by the water.

Buizel started to ascend until he was almost at the treetops. "Alright, now for Sonic boom!" Ash said. The water around Buizel dispersed and it quickly flipped around, lowering its tail toward Naruto. The tail glowed with energy that was released in a wave. The wave struck Naruto and caused him to fall upon impact.

"Man," Naruto sighed as he got up. "Can nothing beat this thing?"

"That's what I'm hoping," Ash said to himself. Buizel landed and held its hand out. It waved it in a taunt. "Bui bui."

* * *

"Electivire, I choose you!" Gary yelled as he threw his Poké Ball. When it opened, a large Pokémon came out, one that Sasuke could only describe as a beast. The most interesting feature he noticed was its two tails, long, thin, and black.

Gary made the first attack. "Electivire, use Thunderbolt." "Electi-VIRE!" Sparks of electricity appeared from the tips its tails. The sparks shot out in a beam of concentrated electricity. Sasuke jumped up to avoid the jolt.

"I do hope that your other attacks are not as clumsy as that one," he taunted, "otherwise this won't be much of a fight." He reached into his pouch and pulled out an assortment of kunai and shuriken. He divided them in both hands and threw them toward Electivire.

"Electivire, Protect!" Gary yelled. A spherical shield appeared around the Pokémon. The stars and knives started to fly in Electivire's direction and landed… mere inches away from touching the shield.

Electivire relaxed its defense. Gary looked at the assorted weapons around his Pokémon. He shook his head dismissively. " If my attack is clumsy," he said, "then yours is…" Suddenly, Sasuke disappeared almost instantly. Only a couple of seconds followed before Sasuke was heard from again, and it was in the form of a battle cry.

Gary looked up in the direction of Sasuke's yell. The ninja trainee was coming down, almost flying, with a fist directed at Electivire. Gary had almost no time to tell Electivire to dodge or defend; Sasuke struck quickly. His fist connected with the Pokémon's body. Electivire didn't move, but Sasuke could tell that it was in pain.

"Not clumsy," Sasuke said, "just smart; nothing more than a distraction."

"Electivire, Thunderpunch!" Gary commanded. Electivire raised one of its hands as it began to crackle with electricity. It lowered its fist to meet with Sasuke, but the young ninja proved to fast for it. Electivire began preparing its other fist for attack and started a salvo of punches. None of them made contact.

"That's the thing about being big," Sasuke said. "You tend to be too slow."

Sasuke could hear Gary chuckling a little. "You know, that almost sounds like something I would have said to Ash a long time ago."

"Really?" Sasuke said, intrigued. "I'm guessing you two are rivals?"

"Sort of," Gary said. Sasuke wondered what Gary meant, but thought it better to not ask.

Instead, he formed his hands into different shapes. Gary noticed that the formation of each gesture was almost patterned.

"Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled. The next thing Gary knew, Sasuke was breathing out a stream of fire. The flames surrounded Electivire in a sphere.

Gary didn't have time to think before he said, "Electivire, use Thunder to break out." Inside the fireball, Electivire started to charge up electricity. "Electi-VIRE!" The electricity shot straight up and dispersed the flames. But Electivire could be seen with several burn marks.

* * *

"Ambipom, spotlight!" Dawn yelled as she threw her Poké Ball. A small, monkey-like creature appeared out of the white light. Ino noticed that it had two tails, with a hand-like attachment at the end of each one. Ambipom started to do midair somersaults upon appearing and, when it landed, made a bow as though it was performing.

Ino couldn't help but say, "That is just the saddest thing I've ever seen." Dawn looked at her with a look of both curiosity and anger. "Your so-called Pokémon doesn't seem to care that this is a battle, not a presentation."

"Can't be helped," Dawn defended. "All my Pokémon are contest performers."

"Contest?" Ino repeated. She didn't like the way Dawn was using that term. Realizing that the battle had started, Ino charged with her hand out.

"Ambipom, dodge!" Dawn said. "Ambi!" Ambipom jumped with some more flips over Ino. Ino turned around and tried to attack again. "Block it!" Dawn commanded. Ambipom put its tails in front of itself and held its hands toward Ino. As the ninja tried to attack, she found herself being blocked by the agile appendages. Finally, Ino struck a punch, but once again, Ambipom flipped over her.

"You won't win by dodging all the time, you know," Ino said to Dawn. Dawn did look reluctant to strike Ino. "Let me guess," Ino said tauntingly, "all your life, you've had to worry about letting your creatures do the fighting for you, never once having to hurt the person behind it. And now that you have to actually, purposely attack a human being, you can't bring yourself to do it." She paused, waiting for her message to sink in. "Face it, you're not meant to be one of the Master's warriors."

Dawn realized that she was mainly taking the defensive, and that she couldn't win without hitting Ino. But what really got to her was when Ino said she wasn't a true warrior. Dawn said to her, "All right, if you want a battle, I'll show you a battle."

Ino, thinking that Dawn still wasn't serious, started to charge at Ambipom. "Ambipom, jump!" Dawn said. The Pokémon did as it was told, using its tails to leap into the air.

Ino smiled. "I knew you wouldn't dare hit me."

Dawn also smiled. "Not from the ground I wouldn't. Swift!" Ambipom's hands started to glow. The tails were brought to the front from either end. A barrage of stars shot out and landed on Ino.

After recovering from the salvo, Ino retrieved four kunai from her pouch. "Let's see how you handle an attack in the air." She threw the kunai directly at Ambipom.

"Ambipom, spin!" "Ambi!" Ambipom positioned its body so that its tails were below it. It held them out and started to spin, looking like a propeller. Ino wondered why Dawn would have her Pokémon show off like that when there were four weapons coming at it. Soon the reason became clear; as each kunai approached Ambipom, one of the hands would knock it off course, causing it to fall to the ground.

Ino quickly thought about where Ambipom would land; if its present course continued, the Pokémon would be almost on top of her. She quickly moved her hands into three different shapes. "Clone Jutsu!" There was a column of smoke surrounding Ino, and when it cleared, there were now two Inos in front of Dawn.

"Let's see your little pet attack me now," they both appeared to say.

Dawn didn't flinch. Instead, she said, "Ambipom, use Double Hit." Both of Ambipom's tails started to glow again. The agile Pokémon flipped over so that the hands were above both Inos. One hand passed right through one, the other hit something solid. Ino recoiled under the pain. Ambipom started to dance around.

When Ino regained her composure, she looked at Ambipom's "victory dance." "As I thought," she said. "Pathetic."

Dawn looked up, insulted and curious.

* * *

"Seviper, let's go!" Jessie yelled. She tossed her Poké Ball and revealed a large snake with large fangs that hung out of its mouth. That worried Sakura enough, but what truly unnerved her was the blade-like tail it sported.

Sakura hesitated, wondering what Seviper was capable of. Taking advantage of Sakura's lack of movement, Jessie made the first attack. "Use Poison Tail!" she said. Seviper charged at Sakura with his tail out in front of her; it was glowing a bright purple.

Sakura jumped out of the tail's path. Seviper hit the ground where Sakura was just as she dodged. Not wanting to go through the attack twice, she ran toward the giant snake, intending to strike first.

Jessie laughed. "Seviper, use one more Poison Tail." Seviper raised its tail, ready to intercept.

Sakura had to think fast. Instinctively, she pulled out some shuriken and hurled them at Seviper's side. The snake Pokémon quickly swiped its tail at the stars, knocking them off course. But soon it felt itself being grabbed from behind. Sakura had used the distraction to her advantage, wrapping her arms around Seviper's body and preventing it from moving.

"Seviper, knock her off," Jessie commanded. But she soon found that Seviper couldn't lift its deadly tail; Sakura had her foot on top of it, the thick sole of her shoe protecting her from the poison.

"Try a Bite attack," Jessie said. Seviper turned its head as far as it could, and tried to lower its fangs onto Sakura's flesh. Sakura moved her arm to avoid harm, but Seviper used this opportunity to shift its body enough to knock the young ninja off.

Jessie smiled confidently. "Since you seem to like being so close…" She turned her attention to her Pokémon. "Seviper, use Wrap." Seviper flew at Sakura and tightly coiled around her. Jessie could see her struggling to break free of the snake's grip.

Just as it looked like Sakura might pass out from exhaustion, she disappeared. Seviper, surprised by its target's vanishing act, loosened its coils and heard something drop. It was a part of a tree stump. Jessie looked in surprise at the discarded object, but began to have a sense of familiarity. The last time she had seen this technique was at a ninja training school in Kanto; impressively executed compared to now, but not without the same intentions. She knew Sakura was somewhere nearby.

Suddenly, as if from nowhere, Sakura came down from the trees and, when she landed, struck her foot onto Seviper.

"Okay," Jessie said, "time to show you my own ninja skills."

* * *

"Carnivine, let's go!" James yelled. He threw his Poké Ball and revealed a large Venus flytrap. But before Rock could anticipate its first attack, Carnivine went directly to James and closed its large mouth on his head.

"Can't you ever just get in there for a change?" James asked out of irritation. Carnivine immediately let go and started to stare Rock down.

Rock, after witnessing the scene, said, "Well, that was one of the weirdest thing I had ever seen."

"Old habits die hard, I'm afraid," James said in response. Rock began to get the impression that this was nothing new. "Now, Carnivine, start this up with Bullet Seed!" "Carni-VINE!" Carnivine opened its mouth and released a barrage of small, yellow-green projectiles.

Rock quickly pulled out a number of shuriken and hurled them toward Carnivine. The stars collided with most of the seeds. Rock noticed that the seeds created small explosions whenever they came into contact with the stars. But too late, he saw that some of the seeds had survived his defense and were almost upon him. Rock could only attempt to brace himself, but he hardly had time, as the remains of the Bullet Seed fell on him, creating their small-force explosions.

_It is a good thing I am weighted down,_ Rock thought, _otherwise the force created by these so-called Bullet Seeds probably would have knocked me away._

James decided to strike now while Rock was recovering. "Carnivine, use Wrap, then Bite." Carnivine launched itself at Rock. It wrapped its tendrils around his body, opened its mouth and lowered it around Rock's head before closing forcefully.

With Rock now trapped, James believed the battle to be over soon, if not now. But then he saw Rock's body moving. At first, he thought it was just a simple struggle. But suddenly, both Rock and his Pokémon started spinning, slowly at first, but steadily increasing.

* * *

Ash was relieved that Buizel was winning. His Pokémon was demonstrating its usual fighting spirit. Naruto, however, wasn't about to take this battle lying down.

When he got back up, he immediately put his hands together to form a cross with the first two fingers of each hand. Ash immediately knew that this was a ninja hand seal, used to employ some special power.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled. A large puff of smoke surrounded the area. When it cleared, Ash saw many more figures that looked exactly like Naruto. They all started laughing and taunting as Ash and Buizel looked around to find any clue that led to the real Naruto.

As he looked, Ash thought of something; seeing copies of this one person reminded him of a Pokémon's Double Team attack. He knew that if he could reveal the fakes, he could find the real Naruto in no time.

"Buizel, use Water Gun!" Buizel caught up on Ash's plan and sprayed a jet of water at the Shadow Clones, moving its head back and forth to cover a wide area. What they saw shocked them both; although the water should have been going through them and making them disappear, it instead bounced off the clones. Ash noticed that they also reacted to being hit. _Okay, either I'm dealing with a very convincing illusion,_ he thought, _or these guys are actually solid._

The Narutos suddenly sprang up, ready to attack. "Buizel, use Aqua Jet," Ash com manded. Buizel surrounded itself in water and ran straight for the incoming army. It managed to knock a few clones out of its path as they ran for him. Ash noticed that whenever Buizel hit a clone dead-on, it disappeared.

It took Ash a second to get what was going on. "Buizel, you have to hit the fakes with enough force to take them out. Try running into them!" Buizel did as it was told and started ramming into more clones. Every Naruto it hit started to vanish, except for one, which instead flew back away from the group.

"There!" Ash almost yelled. "Attack that one, he's the real Naruto. Water Pulse!" Buizel brought its hands in front of itself and a small blue sphere formed between them. Buizel threw the ball at Naruto, who had just looked up.

* * *

Electivire stood up slowly. It was still bracing itself after the fire.

"Electivire, can you go on?" Gary asked. Electivire uncrossed its arms and struck battle-ready pose. "Electi vire!" "I'll take that as a yes, then?"

Sasuke smiled. "I'll say this: your Electivire is resilient."

Gary smiled as well. "Well, when they talk about powerful Pokémon, this is usually what they have in mind." Electivire immediately shot out a lightning attack out of its two tails. Sasuke jumped up to avoid the bolts and flew in the Pokémon's direction.

As he passed over Electivire, Sasuke threw down shuriken and kunai. Electivire used Protect to defend itself. Sasuke finally landed in between it and Gary.

Electivire looked behind itself; Sasuke was already positioned for a strike. "Go ahead, drop the shield," he taunted. "When you do, I'll be ready."

Gary realized that Sasuke was right. Electivire couldn't keep the shield forever, but if he let it go, Sasuke would attack, most likely with some high damaging move. Unless he could counterattack right away.

"Electivire, use Iron Tail!" "Vire!" Both tails began to glow. Gary waited until they were at their brightest. "Now, release Protect!" The shield dissipated and Sasuke started moving toward Electivire. But the Pokémon struck first, as it slammed its tails on either side of him.

"Now, wrap him up," Gary said. The tails stopped glowing and began to circle Sasuke's body. Electivire lifted its catch into the air. "Now, Thunderbolt!" Its tails started to crackle with electricity before loosing it onto Sasuke. Sasuke started to scream in agony until the lightning stopped.

Electivire moved its tails forward, throwing Sasuke away from it. The young ninja started to rise as he said, "I'll admit that you are very competent." He looked over to Ash and Naruto. Ash was struggling against Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu. "Although how you consider that Ash character as your rival, I'll never know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gary asked.

"Well, when I think of a rival, I think of someone who is your equal in power."

"And what Ash lacks in power, he makes up for with spirit and strategy. It's what he used in one of our battles, when he won."

"Really," Sasuke said, intrigued. "What did you do afterwards?"

"Easy," Gary said, "I admitted it." Sasuke looked confused. "I knew that Ash had some strong points. Besides, isn't being a rival all about learning from the other person?"

Sasuke thought about his own clashes with Naruto, who considered him his rival. He pushed these thoughts out of his head and said, "Lovely sentiment I'm sure, but you have more pressing issues to deal with." He held his hand out beside him and it started to spark with white electricity. "Like my Chidori."

* * *

Dawn had only heard one other person talk like Ino before, and she didn't like _him _very much either. "What are you talking about?" she asked angrily.

"Simple," Ino said as she smiled. "Your Pokémon, as well as its Trainer, doesn't take this battle too seriously." Dawn tried to maintain her composure as Ino spoke. "I don't know what kind of world you come from, but where we live, battles should not be taken lightly. Does your world ever look at its battles, or are they just seen as trivial, without any gravity?"

"What are you getting at?" Dawn asked angrily. "Ambi!"

"You're not the first one I saw today who had more levity than was necessary." Dawn reasoned that she was referring to someone from the group's previous battle. "He would continually throw out wisecracks and treat the battle as a game. Forgive me if I find this a poor method of battling."

"Well, maybe, that's just how he battles," Dawn said. "Quick question: did he win?" Ino didn't answer; she made a face. Dawn immediately got it. "Then why are you worrying about it?"

"Because I want to fight a _real_ opponent," Ino answered indignantly. Dawn didn't like how she used the word "real."

She pushed the conversation out of her head for the moment. "Ambipom, Swift!" Ambipom brought its tails in front of itself, releasing more stars. Ino tumbled at the last minute so that the path of stars flew over her. Even after the stars stopped coming, she stayed down.

"Time to show you what a true battle feels like," she said. She put her hands in front of her. Her index fingers and thumbs touched their opposite counterparts, forming an "O."

"What are you doing?" Dawn asked.

"Trust me," Ino said, "you'll hate it." She positioned her hands so that Ambipom was inside the circle. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" Suddenly, her body went limp. She stayed there kneeling, her separated hands on the ground.

Neither Dawn nor Ambipom made a move; instead, Ambipom posed itself defensively. Dawn watched Ino's body for any movement. When nothing happened, she said, "Ambipom, hit her with Swift before she does anything."

But Ambipom didn't move, aside from relaxing its defensive stance. "Ambipom?" Dawn said, starting to feel concerned. Thankfully, Ambipom started to turned slowly. Dawn began to feel relief until she saw the look on its face. It looked slightly malevolent.

Part of Dawn didn't want to believe what she thought had just happened, which was why she said, "Uh… Focus Punch?" Ambipom's hands started to glow. The Pokémon flipped over and lowered the hands, now in closed fists… on itself!

"Ambipom, what's happening?" Dawn said, frightened.

Unheard by anyone, Ino was chuckling. _Don't worry. You'll find out soon enough._

* * *

Sakura was both interested and confused at Jessie's statement. "A ninja? You?" she said. She could hear her inner voice laughing hysterically.

Jessie looked insulted. "Are you suggesting that a radiant beauty such as this," she flashed a pose in an attempt to show off her good looks (which Sakura noticed wasn't working), "couldn't be a knockout ninja?"

Sakura, trying to sound as polite as possible, said, "It's not that. To be a ninja, you have to be disciplined and keep a good head. And if _I've_ got problems with that, and I mean no offense by the way, you've got no chance."

"We'll see about that," Jessie simply said. "Seviper, use Poison Tail." Seviper's tail began to glow its bright purple. Sakura threw an assortment of shuriken and kunai at the snake. _When will she learn?_ Jessie thought. "Seviper, hit them!" Seviper moved over to the weapons and smacked its tail at them.

_When will she learn?_ Sakura thought, believing Jessie was using the same tactic as last time. But when she looked at her thrown weapons, she saw that after Seviper had thrown them off course, they began to return to her. Sakura immediately jumped aside to avoid them. Once she was away, she watched as her stars and knives landed into the ground. She noticed that the points on the shuriken were completely covered so that only two points were fully visible, and her kunai only had the handles pointed up.

_I don't know what happened,_ she thought,_ but that tail must have some force if it can put that much power into my weapons._

She turned and saw Seviper coming at her with its tail ready. She quickly moved her hands into three different positions. "Clone Jutsu!" A puff of smoke surrounded her, and Jessie soon caught sight of two more Sakuras. Whether the real Sakura had moved from her current position or not, Jessie could not be sure.

"Seviper, hold it!" Seviper stopped, but still had its tail glowing. It looked at the three Sakuras in front of it, as if trying to decide which was the real one.

"Illusion clones, hmm?" Jessie said. "Nice one." Jessie thought for a second, then told Seviper to use a Haze attack. Seviper's mouth opened and a stream of thick, black smoke came flowing out of it.

At first, Sakura wondered why Jessie would tell Seviper to use a move that most likely limited its visibility, as well as hers. But she noticed that the Haze didn't reach very far, not even above her waist. Suddenly, she heard Jessie say, "The one on the right!" Sakura immediately panicked; from Jessie's perspective, she was on the right side of her vision. She quickly looked at her doppelgangers and noticed what gave her away: the smoke created by Haze was passing right through them as though they were thin air. But Sakura, being solid, caused it to disperse around her, revealing her position. She barely had a second to think before Seviper ran to her and wrapped itself around her. She heard Jessie taunting her, "No substitution tricks now."

* * *

Carnivine noticed the spinning that was happening around it, yet it wasn't the one doing it. It could feel itself going faster and faster. Both it and James realized this must Rock's doing.

"Carnivine, let go!" James commanded. Carnivine released its hold of Rock, but Rock was spinning so fast at the time that it was launched headfirst into a nearby tree.

James, after seeing Carnivine was okay, turned toward Rock. He was beginning to slow down to the point where James could make out his features. Rock finally came to a stop and said, "I am actually glad your Pokémon released me. The Primary Lotus is a very dangerous move." James decided to take his word for it, but he also noticed that Rock was breathing hard.

"Carnivine, now's your chance! Bite!" he yelled. Carnivine recovered from its fall and jumped toward Rock. It opened its mouth and closed onto Rock's head. But this time, Rock was slightly fatigued from using the Primary Lotus. He would have to wait until he felt his strength return.

"Carnivine, use Bullet Seed!" Rock heard James say. He felt Carnivine release it hold and then felt something like many small bombs rain down on him. He started to crumble under the seeds' power.

_Only one chance,_ Rock thought. Still trying to shield himself with his arm, he lowered the other to pull up one pant leg and remove his weight. He switched arms and repeated what he did with the first leg. By now, Carnivine was landing behind him. The force exerted from the seeds' explosions seemed bigger to Rock, as he was now being lurched forward a few feet. But those few feet were all he needed. Before the stream of Bullet Seeds reached him, he pushed himself up with his legs, which lifted him into the air.

James was surprised that Rock was able to jump that high. He looked for any sign of him, but Rock seemed to have disappeared.

* * *

"Hey, something I've been meaning to ask," May said to Kakashi, who was staring at the battles around him. "Why do you wear that mask?"

Kakashi turned to May. He simply said, "Health reasons." May suspected their was more to his answer, but let it go.

Kakashi kept staring in silence, a silence that was followed by the others. Finally he said, "These creatures are simply amazing." Everyone turned to him. "There's something I've noticed. Everyone from _our_ world is battling as though their opponent is simply the Pokémon itself."

"Isn't that the idea?" Misty asked.

"Maybe," Kakashi answered, "but here's a new idea. In every war, there is usually a soldier and a general. The soldier's job is to do the actual fighting, while the general figures out the best way to do it." He paused. "Tell me, what is the purpose of a Pokémon Trainer?"

All three Trainers paused before Brock spoke. "Well, I guess that depends on who you are. Ash, for instance, wants to be a Pokémon Master, someone who is a great battler and very smart when it comes to Pokémon, raising them to become powerful." "Pika," Pikachu asserted, flexing its arms. "However, I try to focus on raising a Pokémon to bring out the best in their abilities."

May spoke up, "And Dawn and I are Pokémon Coordinators, focusing on improving the quality of their moves for visual effect."

"And that's what I'm talking about. To give a cumulative answer based on what you said, the job of the Trainer is to make their Pokémon the best they can be. That's why I say those from our world face _two_ opponents instead of one."

* * *

Naruto just looked up to see the blue orb coming at him. As it cascaded downward, it created a wave of water that resembled those on the ocean. Naruto braced himself, and as he did, one of his Shadow Clones jumped in between him and the attack. The orb connected with the clone, and the water continued to the real Naruto. But aside from the wetness, he was fine.

Naruto looked around; he still had a fair number of Shadow Clones left, around the range of ten. "Come on, guys," he called out, "lets hit it!" He jumped up and the others followed suit.

It didn't take long for Ash to get what Naruto was doing: a multi-body slam. "Buizel, spin and use Water Gun!" Buizel jumped so that its back was to the ground. It sprayed a jet of water straight up and began to rotate. The water moved with Buizel, creating a swirling net of water surrounding it.

"If this actually beats me," Naruto said, "I'll eat my headband."

"I'll get you some ketchup, then," Ash retorted.

Naruto still thought that water was pretty poor defense. But he would soon find out, since he and the Shadow Clones were almost on top of the currents. He lowered his fist into the water, ready to break the swirling dome.

He found himself flying backward. The force from the shield had blown him back. He looked up to see if his clones were faring any better, but he couldn't see them. _Either I'm seeing things,_ he thought, _or that Water Gun just got a power boost._

"Yes!" Ash yelled "Counter Shield does it again!"

"Okay, no more Mister Nice-Guy!" Naruto said. He held his hand out in front of him as though he was holding an invisible ball. But that invisible ball started to become visible, as Ash saw a swirling mass of energy in the hand. "Counter Shield, meet Rasengan." Naruto ran up to the swirling shield.

"Buizel, go faster!" Buizel began to accelerate in its rotations. Naruto put the Rasengan in front of him, ready to confront the shield. Ash became nervous as the ball touched the water.

Naruto's hand pierced the shield and his body soon followed. With nothing left between him and Buizel, he ran as fast as he could for the final strike. Buizel broke the shield to attack Naruto directly, but it was too late. The Rasengan made contact with Buizel's body. The Pokémon forced backward near Ash.

"Buizel! Are you okay?" Ash held Buizel in his arms. "Pika!" Pikachu leapt from Brock's arms and ran to Ash. Buizel opened its eyes. "Bui…" Ash was relieved to see his Pokémon was okay physically. "How do you feel?" "Bui." Buizel still had the determination Ash was familiar with. "Thank goodness."

On the other side, Naruto was jumping in celebration. "Yes! That's two matches in a row! I am unstoppable!"

* * *

Sasuke ran toward Electivire with his hand to his side, sporting the lightning-enhanced energy blade. Only when he was directly in front of Electivire, where Protect couldn't be used, did he connect the blade. The electricity began to flow into Electivire. The contact between Sasuke and Electivire went on for about a minute, until the Chidori disappeared.

Sasuke was panting hard. "I can't keep this up." He looked at Gary. "How is this thing able to take so much lightning energy?"

"Well," Gary answered, "it could have something to do with the fact that Electivire is an Electric-type, making it resistant to electric based moves. But that would be too obvious."

Sasuke started to back away, wanting to put some distance in between him and Electivire. If he wanted to regain energy, he had to find a way to distract Gary to allow him to rest.

He heard yelling and shouting. He turned to find Naruto celebrating in victory while Ash seemed to be consoling his Pokémon. He turned back to Gary.

"Looks like I already win this battle," he said. Gary looked confused. "You consider Ash your rival, but if Naruto can beat him, that doesn't say much for you."

"So sure of yourself, are you?" Gary said. Sasuke smiled, then disappeared. Gary looked around, but it wasn't long before Sasuke appeared behind Electivire and was already forming four different hand signs.

"Dragon Flame Jutsu!" He grabbed onto one of Electivire's tails.

"Electivire, dodge!" Gary yelled calmly. Electivire sprinted to a run and was dragging Sasuke with it. When he let go, he turned to where the Pokémon was standing before running. He saw the flames from his attack, but without a cord-like object to cling to, they were already dissipating.

Sasuke immediately ran behind Electivire again, this time ready with both fists. "Electivire, Thunderpunch!" Gary said. The Pokémon's fist sparkled with electricity as it turned on the spot, connecting with Sasuke before he had a chance to strike.

Sasuke stood up, amazed. "I don't get it, how can it be so fast?"

"Remember when we talked about how that one attack was ineffective?" Gary said. Sasuke simply grunted; he didn't like where this was going. "Electivire has a very special ability called Motor Drive. It actually absorbs electric based attacks and uses that electricity to boost its speed."

Sasuke, in an attempt to keep Electivire disarrayed, threw some kunai at it. "Iron Tail!" Gary commanded. The two tails lit up and gained a metal-like consistency, and using its enhanced speed, it swiped at the kunai, knocking them off course.

Finally, out of desperation, Sasuke charged with his fist out. "Thunderbolt!" Gary said, just before Sasuke was about to strike. Sasuke's close proximity to Electivire, in addition to its speed, made it impossible for him to dodge. He flew back and laid on the ground in pain. He tried to get up, but it almost hurt to do so.

Gary recalled Electivire and approached him. "You okay?"

Sasuke groaned and said, "I'll be fine," in a slightly rude manner. "But if anyone asks, I didn't lose as badly as it looks. Otherwise, I'd never hear the end of it from Naruto."

Gary smiled passively. "My lips are sealed. Besides, they've already got a good idea of what the battle was like." He pointed to the spectators. And Naruto.

* * *

Dawn didn't want to believe what was happening, but it was the only thing that made sense: Ino had called her latest technique "Mind Transfer Jutsu." If Ambipom really did strike itself, then Ambipom wasn't the one doing it. Ino had taken over its mind and was now causing it to do damage to itself.

Luckily, it didn't look like Ino had noticed that Dawn had caught on to her. Ambipom looked like it was waiting for a new command. Dawn had to keep the illusion that she didn't think anything was wrong until she could find a way to damage Ino.

"Don't worry, Ambipom," she said apologetically, "we all make mistakes."

_This one has a lot to learn,_ Ino said, though nobody could hear her.

_There has to be a way to hit Ino,_ Dawn thought. _She won't allow me to use any attack without hurting Ambipom, so I'll have to find a way to hit them both. The only attack that can do that now is Swift. But how do I do that?_ Dawn was thinking of ways she had used Swift in the past. Her thoughts, unfortunately, tended to stay with the Solaceon Contest, where her overactive Swift cost her the first round.

Then it hit her. "Ambipom, spin and use Swift!"

_Fool,_ Ino said as she let Ambipom's muscle memory take over. Ambipom somersaulted onto one arm and began to rotate, releasing a number of stars.

Before the stars had a chance to land on Ambipom, Dawn yelled, "Go faster!" "Am-bi- POM!" Ambipom lowered itself onto its back and accelerated. The star's numbers grew expo nentially and eventually it was hidden from view. Dawn couldn't tell whether Ino was causing the stars to land on Ambipom, but, after looking off to the side, she could see them landing on Ino's rigid, lifeless body.

"Ambipom, don't you remember this move?" "Am?" Ambipom stopped spinning; Ino had nothing to do with it. "Remember?" Dawn continued. "That was the move that lost us the Solaceon Contest. It was after that move that Zoey showed us what went wrong, and why we've been doing better since then." Dawn didn't know what she was saying; she was simply trying to provoke Ambipom's memories to snap it out of Ino's control.

A few seconds passed. Suddenly, Ambipom began to convulse and finally it cried "Am-BI!" It jumped, flipped into a midair somersault, and landed with one tail on the ground, leaving the other in the air.

"Ambipom, you're back!" "Ambipom!"

"How touching," they both heard. They both looked to Ino's body; it was beginning to move again. "But just because you've broken my Mind Transfer technique," she started to get up, "doesn't mean…" She suddenly winced, as though she was in pain. "What's happened?"

Dawn smiled. "I figured that would work. The Swift attack had so many stars, some of them landed on your physical body."

Ino didn't speak. Instead, she stood up, in spite of the pain, and began to run. "Ambipom, Swift, and get ready for Focus Punch!" Ambipom began doing the same Swift technique it had done before. Ino knew that whether she stayed away or charged in, she would still get hit by Swift.

_If that's the case, I'll just go with the option that gets me a win._ Ino ran into the barrier of stars and struck, only to find that she had punched thin air. However, she soon heard something falling toward her; Ambipom was falling with both hands lit up. One hand struck her, then the other quickly followed.

It was at that point the Swift faded away. Ambipom jumped back to Dawn and flashed a final victory pose. "Yes! We won!" Dawn yelled. She walked over to Ino after recalling Ambipom. "How you doing?" she asked. She expected the answer to be hostile.

For a while, Ino said nothing. Finally, she said, "I'll say this, there are times when I learn something new about my opponents. You definitely are not what I thought you'd be."

"What was that?"

Ino sighed. "Easy." Dawn made a disapproving face.

She quickly lightened up, however, and said, "Well, I guess I showed you."

* * *

Sakura struggled against the snake's coils. She tried to move her arms, but couldn't get much farther than her mid-section.

Jessie was enjoying this; this was her first real victory since the Majolica Contest. She loved seeing Sakura fight helplessly against a losing situation.

But Sakura wasn't done yet. With the little mobility she had, she felt around until she found her weapons pouch. She reached in and pulled out a kunai. She then poked Seviper's body and even slid it across, not enough to hurt it seriously, but enough to make it feel something. Seviper instinctively relaxed its grip on that side, just enough for Sakura to raise her fist into the outside of the snake's lower jaw.

The Pokémon's coils loosened and Sakura jumped out. When she landed, she turned to see if Seviper was beaten. To her dismay, although she expected this, Seviper was just now getting up. "Only one chance," she said to herself, and positioned her hands three different ways. "Transformation Jutsu!" Jessie could tell that Sakura was using a sort of ninja trick to make herself look like someone, or something, else, possibly her opponent. A thick cloud of smoke appeared. When it dissipated, Jessie saw that Sakura had turned, not into Seviper like she thought it would, but into her!

By now, Seviper had regained consciousness and was staring at the real Jessie. "All right, Seviper, use Poison Tail," she said. But what she didn't count on was Seviper turning around to find another Jessie. It couldn't be sure whether the Jessie that told her to attack was the real one or not.

"Seviper," Sakura said in Jessie's voice, "don't listen to her; she's used some kind of transformation tactic to fool you. Use Haze!"

"Seviper," Jessie said forcefully, "I'm the real Jessie! Bite, now!

"No, Seviper," Sakura argued, "_I'm_ the real deal. Use Wrap!"

Meanwhile, Seviper was turning its head back and forth whenever one of the Jessies spoke, like it was in the center of a tennis match. Finally, it became delirious with confusion and lashed out at one of the Jessies, who was actually Sakura.

Sakura quickly dived out of the way of Seviper's Bite attack. Instead, Seviper bit down on the fake Jessie's hair.

Jessie started to scream. "I don't care if that isn't my own hair, you don't have to eat it!" Seviper, hair in mouth, looked at Jessie incredulously. Sakura realized that it started to suspect who was who. She quickly ran up and kicked Seviper. The snake lurched forward before Sakura grabbed onto it again. Seviper, now realizing that the Jessie that was trying to restrain it was a fake, lifted its Poison Tail. "Sev…" Sakura caught onto it just before it swung. She jumped out of the way. "VIPE!" The tail hit Seviper's head and it fell to the ground. Sakura, still as Jessie, stood above it, victorious.

"You know, if you ever make it as a ninja," she said as she reverted to her true form, "at least you'll have the legs for it."

Jessie recalled Seviper. "Forget ninja," she said. "Right now I just want to make it was a winning Trainer."

* * *

James looked around for Rock. Either he had gained the ability to fly, or he was hiding somewhere in the trees. Either way, he knew he couldn't let Rock come down with a next attack.

"Carnivine, fire Bullet Seed straight up!" Carnivine fired its attack up into the air. The area it covered went in a circle that surpassed even James.

"A smart idea," said a voice, "but poorly executed in my mind." Suddenly, Rock appeared out of nowhere and was now under Carnivine.

"Carnivine, below!" James yelled, but it was too late. Rock had forced Carnivine into the air. The next thing James knew, Rock jumped up to meet the Pokémon's height.

"Time for the Primary Lotus," Rock said. He grabbed Carnivine's body and began to spin. James knew what was coming.

"Carnivine, use Bullet Seed." Carnivine began spitting the seeds out in Rock's face. Despite this, Rock wouldn't let go; his grip was tight.

Thankfully, Rock still didn't want his opponent to feel the full effects of the Primary Lotus. Halfway after the fall, Rock pushed Carnivine out of the way. Like before, the effects of the spin had an impact on its landing. Carnivine hit the ground and dirt flew everywhere. Meanwhile, Rock had slowed his spinning to the point where he could land safely on his feet. He noticed that he landed right next to his ankle weights.

Rock walked over and attempted to put one of them on. James noticed this. Realizing that the added weight would make him more difficult to defeat, and that using the Primary Lotus would tire him out, James decided to attack him now while he was vulnerable. "Carnivine, finish this up with Bite!" "Carni-VINE!" Carnivine, recovered from its fall, jumped toward Rock with its mouth open.

Rock noticed the incoming Carnivine and stood up, leaving one weight discarded on the ground. He waited until Carnivine was at the right distance away from him. He lifted his weighted leg and moved it across him, with Carnivine in the path of the arc. The kick, boosted by the added weight, sent Carnivine flying. When it landed, it was extremely tired and couldn't get up.

James didn't need Rock to say, "It looks as though I win," to know the battle was over. He recalled Carnivine and said to himself, "Typical. Even in another dimension, I can't win."

* * *

When all the battles were done, everyone gathered to where Brock, Misty, May, and Kakashi were observing.

Kakashi was the first to speak. "I'll say this, both sides have definitely been met with some surprises this day." Many of them nodded in agreement. "For us, we have seen power that we can only dream of."

Gary interjected, "Hey, you guys have some pretty amazing skills yourselves."

"And I think it's safe to say," Kakashi continued, "that we learned about more than just each others' abilities." Everyone thought about this. Some were murmuring things like, "You got a point there."

"I think we should all get going," Brock said. "If we're going to get to our next battle, I'd rather it be done sooner."

"Till we meet again, then," Kakashi said, and everyone went their own way.

**Next time: The final battle of the round: MegaMan NTWarrior vs. Sonic X!**

**But first, an apology: I will no longer be able to make weekly updates. What with my university level courses, I'll be amazed if I even get the next chapter done by Thanksgiving. I'll update when I can, though, so stay tuned.**


	13. R2B3 Amazing Moves

**Finally, got this one finished. You know, for a minute, I actually thought I was going to make it before Thanksgiving, if not the day of.**

**Anyway, here are the battles between MegaMan NTWarrior and Sonic X. Also, we learn more about my _deus ex machina_ 3 chapters ago. _See R1B3 and R2B1 for details._**

**Disclaimer: If I did own these, this would be more official than a simple fanfic (not that it hasn't been fun so far).**

**A/N: For this battle, I have used battlechips that have, to my knowledge, remained absent from the anime. If the chips used here are in the anime, let me know and correct me on anything I might have goofed up.**

**Round 2**

**Battle 3**

**Amazing Moves**

"Well, at least that explains why my back doesn't hurt so much," Knuckles thought out loud, referring to the Master's previous speech.

Sonic and the group had been traveling for a long time, finding no one else. Rouge did occasional aerial recon, but so far had turned up nothing. After what she thought was her ninth attempt, she spotted a gleam of light shining through the trees.

"Hey, guys," she called, "I got something you might want to see." When everyone looked up she pointed toward the direction of the flash. Everyone ran over to find out exactly what Rouge saw.

While everyone was running, Rouge went on ahead and landed in the flash's area. What she saw was the last thing she expected. Before she could think, she heard rustling behind her. She turned to find Sonic leading the pack. He was amazed by what he saw, too.

"What on earth," Rouge asked, "would some stupid looking biplane be doing here?"

"Hey, watch what you say, Rouge," Sonic said. "That's the Tornado."

"I thought the Tornado looked much more impressive than this," she said.

"That's the X-Tornado, built to hold a Chaos Emerald's power. This baby was our first plane."

"But what could it be doing here?" Amy asked.

Sonic thought hard. He, too, found it strange that the old Tornado could just show up in another dimension, especially since it was nowhere near a place that could be affected by the Master.

Then a thought hit him. He approached the plane and started examining it. He spent most of the time looking into the cockpit and the compartments. But he didn't find anything.

"Uh, Sonic?" Knuckles said. "What are you doing?"

"Do you remember what brought us here in the first place?" Sonic said.

"I try to forget," Knuckles said.

"Chaos Control," Shadow answered. "But what does that have to do with…?"

"I remember Tails leaving one of our Chaos Emeralds in here for safe keeping." Sonic replied. "I was looking for it. It was a possible explanation as to how the Tornado got here. But I can't find it."

"Speaking of which," Shadow said, "during my battle with Kakashi, one of his attacks actually dug up a Chaos Emerald, right here in the Crossroad of Worlds."

Everyone simply stared at Shadow in disbelief, partly because they didn't really believe him. "Are you sure it was a real Chaos Emerald?" Amy asked him.

"I'm positive. I recognized the energy pulsing through it."

"But what would a Chaos Emerald be doing here, of all places?" Rouge asked rhetorically.

"I believe I can answer that," the Master's deep voice rang through their minds. "Since this is a dimension between dimensions, the properties of time and space are known to run rampant. Because of this, many of the properties are contained within the minerals of what you call the Chaos Emeralds. One of these gems became so big, that it threatened to distort reality beyond repair. To counteract this, I had to send it to another dimension where its impact could be weakened, if such an impact even existed. As a further safeguard, I sent with it seven smaller gems to absorb the big one's power."

"And that's why we have the Chaos and Master Emeralds in our dimension," Knuckles concluded.

Sonic was still rummaging through the Tornado. "Aha!" Everyone turned toward him, thinking he had found the Emerald. Instead, he held up a number of power rings. "These might help."

"Sonic, quick question," Amy said. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I could use the power boost," he answered. He slid one ring around his wrist. "This number should definitely last for the remaining battles."

"Seeing as you have more than you need," Rouge pointed out, "you may be right."

"Well, they're not _all_ for me." Sonic picked up one of the rings and threw it to Shadow. "Since you're my double, I figure they should work for you."

"Maybe, but I already said I'm not doing this next bout," Shadow replied.

"Just keep it anyway," Sonic said. "It'll save you the trouble of having to get it later. Besides, you found that last Emerald by accident. At least with this, you know you'll get a boost."

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Amy asked.

"Simple; you're gonna carry them." Sonic threw the remaining rings to Amy.

"Where am I supposed to put them?" she asked, irritated.

"Wherever you put your hammers," Sonic retorted. ("Very funny," Amy whispered.)

* * *

"So remind me," Lan said, "why are we doing this?"

Chaud sighed in irritation. "For the thousandth time, Lan, we weren't having any luck simply sitting around waiting for someone to come. And as a personal preference, it wouldn't have been a good idea to hold any more battles at SciLab; the workers there are fixing the wreckage from the last battle, and I don't want to give them any more to work on."

As they continued walking, Lan noticed that Maylu appeared to be lost in thought. "Hey, Maylu," he said, "you in there?"

Maylu's head jerked up. "Wha…? Oh, sorry, Lan. I was just thinking about our last battle."

"What about?" Lan asked.

"Well, you remember how it ended right? Only one person from the other side won her battle. It got me thinking, if there are only three people on our side, nobody's going to take the final results well, no matter how it ends up."

"Maylu," Chaud said, "you know as well as I do that this isn't a competition. It's a training phase for a larger battle that will decide the fate of reality."

"I can't help it," she argued. "The only times I don't treat our NetBattles too seriously is when there aren't any major consequences for either winning or losing. And since there aren't any consequences for these battles..."

"Maylu," Lan said, "Chaud's right. We can't worry about who wins or loses, as long as we remember why we're fighting in the first place."

"Wow, Lan," Chaud said, "it's about time some of my wisdom rubbed off on you."

"Hey, Chaud, when I want your input on what I say, I'll ask for it."

Maylu started to perk up at seeing the classic Lan/Chaud rivalry. But her thoughts remained on their numbers and how that might affect the outcomes, for both the opponents and for her team.

Suddenly, Lan heard a beep coming from his PET. Lan knew who it was. He pulled it out and held the screen to his face. "What's up, Dad?"

"It appears we've found your next opponents. The radar system shows five life forms not far from your current position." A map of the area appeared on the screen. Lan spotted five blips on their left front.

"Come on, guys. This way," Lan said. He led the others in the direction of the blips. It didn't take long before they heard voices. Soon they found the source of the voices, but they could only stare in wonder at what they found.

"Lan, what are they?" Maylu asked.

"You're asking me?" Lan responded. "All I can think of is Rush's long lost cousins." Rush gave him a small, disapproving bark.

"Lan," MegaMan said, "hold the screen up to them. I'll send the image to Dr. Hikari." Lan did as he was told. A few seconds passed before they heard Dr. Hikari's voice.

"As near as I can tell," he said, "they appear to be some form of anthropomorphic creatures."

"Speak English, Dad," Lan said.

"They have characteristics of both animals and humans," Hikari clarified.

"But what kind of animals?" Maylu asked.

"Well, four of them appear to be genetically similar to hedgehogs… no, wait… never mind, that fourth one is an echidna. And the fifth is a bat. And there's something about one of the hedgehogs that makes it seem… different."

"This is turning out to be the strangest day I ever had," Lan said.

* * *

Shadow told everyone to stop, saying he thought he heard voices. Everyone froze in their tracks. They attempted to listen for whatever Shadow heard.

"_I think they know we're here,"_ they could barely make out. _"Dr. Hikari."_

The next thing they knew, they could hear a clearer sound from above. They looked up and saw multi-hued hexagons forming together. They progressed outward and began to form downward, making a dome-like structure.

"All right," Knuckles said, fists in front of him. "Who's there, and what's with the theatrics?"

"Forgive us," a voice said, "but we figured it would be a good idea to set this up so we wouldn't waste much time." They turned to find three figures approaching them with some sort of thing that looked like a dog. All of them appeared to be in their teenage years. The one wearing red and black clothing was the one who was speaking.

"I'm Lan Hikari," the other male said. "Meet Maylu Sakurai, Chaud Blaze, and Rush." He motioned to the other two and the dog-like being with them. "Oh, and of course…" Lan reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a handheld videogame with the letters PET on the top. He pointed device's screen toward Sonic. He saw something that looked like a man inside the screen.

"Hi, I'm MegaMan," it said. The other two humans were pulling our similar devices, holding two other beings called Roll and ProtoMan.

Sonic had never seen anything like this before. Chuck may have turned out a good invention every so often, but this was something he couldn't even describe. "What are these guys?" he asked.

"Internet Navigators," MegaMan answered, "better known as NetNavis."

"Of course," Lan said, "we could probably ask you the same question."

"What, you can't tell?" Sonic said. "The name's Sonic. Me, Amy, and Shadow are all hedgehogs, Knuckles is an echidna, and Rouge is a bat."

"Could you maybe be more specific?" Lan asked.

"I don't know if it would do you any good," Sonic said, "But I guess you could call us Mobians: residents of the world of Mobius."

Knuckles cut into Sonic's conversation. "Now, if you don't mind, could you please tell us what this thing is supposed to be?" He pointed up at the dome.

"That's a dimensional area," Chaud answered. "Think of it as a manmade dimension where the real world fuses with the cyberworld."

"Oh, okay," Knuckles said in a sarcastic tone, "now that makes a lot of sense."

"Perhaps it would be better if we _showed_ you what we're talking about," Maylu suggested.

"And the best way to show," the Master said, "is to act. The pairs for these bouts are: Lan and Sonic, Chaud and Knuckles, and Maylu and Amy. Battlers, take your positions." Everyone went to a different section of the dimensional area, while Rouge flew herself and Shadow to a safe observing spot. Lan and Chaud each pulled out a computer chip. Amy noticed that Maylu didn't have one, but instead, Rush was following her.

"Three…" The NetOps had their chips ready and Rush knelt to the ground. "Two…" The Mobians stood ready for battle. "One! Start the battle!"

"Synchro Chip in, download!" Lan yelled as he inserted the chip into his PET. "Begin Cross Fusion!" The PET broke up into several bits. Many of them surrounded Lan's limbs. Other bits formed a circle with a curious design. The circle struck his chest and a brilliant light poured out of it. When it was gone, Lan's body was covered in dark blue fabric. Suddenly, a helmet appeared over his head and his face became obstructed by a face plate. Sonic looked at Lan's new form and realized something.

"Isn't that MegaMan?" he asked.

"In a way," Lan said. "Cross Fusing is the act of combining the appearances of a Navi with its NetOp."

"And I bet you don't use it just to give you a nice look," Sonic said.

"You got that right, and thanks for the compliment," Lan added in a whisper. He held his arm out. Sonic stood amazed when he saw his hand transform into a barrel-shaped object. "Mega Buster!" Lan held the Buster toward Sonic and started to fire.

Sonic swerved left and right to dodge the shots. Lan was impressed by Sonic's speed. He decided to switch tactics. "Cyber Sword, battlechip in, download!" His arm transformed again to sport a light blue blade. He stood there and waited for Sonic to come to him. When Lan saw Sonic coming he tried to swing the sword, but Sonic proved to fast for him, as he sped through without a scratch. To make matters more difficult, Sonic ran passed Lan immediately after with his hand out, striking him as he passed.

"So much for that," Lan said to himself. "Long Sword, battlechip in, download!" The sword on Lan's arm grew longer.

"Oooh, a longer sword," Sonic said sarcastically. "Tell me that isn't your best move."

"Oh, I've got better," Lan returned, "but there's nothing wrong with using the other moves." Sonic resumed running at his usual pace: fast. Lan simply stood there waiting for a good opportunity to strike. But Sonic didn't seem content to stay in a straight line, as he curved and zigzagged almost constantly.

"Invis, battlechip in, download!" Lan's body began to fade and eventually disappeared from view. Sonic stopped for a moment to see where he went. Almost immediately, he felt a sharp pain on his back. He rolled into a ball and began to charge in the direction where he thought Lan was. However, he didn't hit anything. He thought Lan must have moved after doing his damage or the sword was long enough to strike him at an angle.

"Blaster!" Sonic heard Lan say. He turned to find the voice, but he was too late. A barrage of energy shots seemingly erupted out of thin air and hit him. No matter where Sonic ran, he couldn't find a place to avoid the blasts.

* * *

"Synchro Chip in, download!" Chaud said as he inserted the chip into his PET. Knuckles expected ProtoMan to appear in between him and Chaud. Instead, the PET exploded and the bits began to surround Chaud's hands and feet. The remaining bits came to form a circle with a peculiar symbol, which struck Chaud's chest. His body started glowing and was covered in some kind of armor and helmet. Knuckles saw Chaud's hair extend in the back. Chaud finally flashed a battle-ready pose.

They didn't waste any words; Knuckles didn't know what happened nor did he care for that matter. He simply charged in with a fist ready.

"Cyber Sword, battlechip in, download!" Chaud's hand transformed into a hilt that sported a crimson blade. Knuckles moved his fist forward and connected with the flat edge of the blade. Knuckles raised his other fist but Chaud caught it just in time.

"Laser Blast, battlechip in, download." Knuckles quickly looked to Chaud's free hand, expecting it to do something. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain at his back, like he was being shot at. He quickly moved to one side, knowing another blast was on its way. He guessed correctly and Chaud took the second shot. Knuckles used the distraction to his advantage and turned to find a stationary cannon. He ran up to it and punched. The cannon bent below the "head" before disappearing in a series of cubes.

Knuckles watched the strange disappearance with curiosity. Suddenly, he felt something strike him from behind again, this one like a slashing motion. He turned and found Chaud, still sporting the Cyber Sword on his arm.

"You wanna watch it?" Knuckles said with a growl. "I just got this back healed."

"Then maybe next time you won't allow yourself to be so distracted," Chaud said. Knuckles just ignored him and began to unleash a salvo of punches. Chaud swerved left and right to avoid him.

"Stay still, will ya?" Knuckles said.

"Sound advice," Chaud returned. "Perhaps you should do the same. Rock Cube, times four, and Area Steal, battlechips in, download!" Chaud immediately zoomed out of sight. Meanwhile, Knuckles noticed three shadows surrounding him. He looked up and saw three giant, stone-colored objects that looked like Rubik's Cubes. He braced himself. The cubes landed around him in a triangle formation. He relaxed his stance.

"Hate to tell you this…" he said. "Well, actually I don't, but you missed."

"Did I?" Chaud replied. "You'll recall I called for four Rock Cubes." Knuckles thought for a second before realizing Chaud was right. But before he could ask where the fourth one would end up, he saw the area around him growing darker. He looked up and saw a similar cube falling, this one directly above him. Knuckles ducked into the surrounding cubes so as not to be hit when the fourth cube landed. It finally stopped on top of the other three.

The good news, Knuckles thought, was that he wasn't hurt. The bad news, however, was that he was trapped; with three cubes surrounding him and one more covering the only exit wide enough for him to get away, he was definitely stuck. Knuckles started punching at the rock walls.

Outside, Chaud could hear Knuckles grunting, almost as though he was struggling. "You might as well give up," Chaud suggested. As soon as he said it, he heard Knuckles stop. But the noises soon started up again; this time, though, it sounded like something made of metal was scraping against the rocks.

* * *

Rush jumped into the air in a blinding flash. When he came down, he was the shape and size of a small computer ship. "Rush Synchro Chip in, download!" Maylu placed the new chip into her PET and held it out in front of her. "Begin Cross Fusion!" The PET then scattered into tiny bits that began to reconnect themselves on her hands and feet. More bits connected and arranged into a symbol that stuck itself to Maylu's chest. Her body became surrounded in some kind of pink fabric and her hair grew longer. To finish the ensemble, a helmet covered her head with thin, yellow streamers flowing around it from the front.

When Maylu finished transforming, Amy simply said, "It's a good look for you, but looks aren't everything, you know."

"Then how about this look?" Maylu returned. She held her arm out and it began to transform into what looked like a bow without the arrow. She held the front of the bow in Amy's direction. A sphere of energy formed where the arrow's tip would be. "Roll Arrow!" The energy sphere launched itself a sped toward Amy.

Amy reached behind her back and stood still. Just as the blast was almost next to her, she moved her hand in front of her. Maylu thought she could see something in it, but a burst of smoke obstructed her view. It wasn't long, however, before the blast that she had fired was coming back at her.

"Barrier!" A large, clear sphere surrounded her before the blast hit. When she could see the field more clearly, she saw Amy holding a large hammer in her hands. "Where did that come from?" Maylu asked.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Amy said. She ran toward Maylu and held the hammer to her side, intending to hit her as she passed.

"Tornado, battlechip in, download!" A cyclone appeared between the two competitors. Amy tried running to the side to avoid it, but the wind currents were too strong. She felt herself being lifted up and spun around the tornado. She was thrown off as she came toward the other side. As she got up, the tornado began to move closer to her.

Amy knew that if it collided with her head on, she could be thrown almost a hundred feet up. She quickly thought of something that could work as a defense and attack at the same time.

She threw her hand, with her hammer, behind her back and quickly brought it to the front again. Maylu saw that either the hammer had changed or she pulled out a different one, because the mallet was now considerably bigger than before. Amy held it to her side in an attack stance and ran toward the tornado. Just before the two collided, Amy swung at it. The cyclone engulfed Amy.

_What was that supposed to do?_ Maylu thought. But soon, she saw Amy fly out of the tornado, spinning at an incredible pace, holding her hammer in front of her. Maylu didn't have time to calculate the speed before Amy finally stopped in front of her. The hammer made contact with her body and threw her behind the pink hedgehog.

"Area Steal!" Maylu disappeared and reappeared back on the ground, still a little disoriented from the near fall.

"What happened?" she said as she tried to gain her balance.

"Easy," Amy said. "Because this hammer is so big, it's also pretty heavy. Normally, any attacks with it are slow, but thanks to your tornado…"

"You could stay on the ground and build enough speed for a more powerful hit," Maylu finished.

* * *

Sonic tried to zigzag, curve, and weave his way around to avoid getting hit by the blasts of energy. But no matter how hard he tried, the blasts were able to connect. Up until that point, the shots had only glanced him. Finally, though, his luck had run out and he was struck full in the chest and was blown away. Lan stopped firing.

Sonic landed on the ground flat on his stomach. As he opened his eyes, he saw his arm in front of him; he still had the ring on his wrist. Before getting up, Sonic removed the ring and held it in his palm. He felt a surge of power rushing through him.

"All right, time to finish this up," Lan said. "Step Sword, battlechip in, download!" Sonic got up. He heard Lan move, and he could tell he was moving fast. Sonic immediately ran so that Lan's invisible blade only sliced thin air. "What the…?"

"Lan, get out of the way!" MegaMan yelled, but before Lan could comply, something had hit him. He fell to the ground and saw his invisibility was wearing off.

"What was that?" he asked as he got up.

"Hard to say," MegaMan said, "but I think that was Sonic."

"No way," Lan argued. "Sonic didn't move that fast before."

"Then consider this 'after,'" they heard Sonic's voice say. Lan was suddenly knocked off his feet again. He turned to find a blue energy trail left by Sonic's speed.

"I've got an idea," Lan said. "Landmine and Body Double, battlechips in, download!" Lan stood up and waited for Sonic to pass by again.

Sonic saw Lan standing stationary. "This is just too easy." He sped over to Lan once more and hit his body. Seemingly out of nowhere, the ground beneath them exploded.

Lan was a few yards away in hiding, safe from the explosion. "That _was_ easy," he said to himself.

"Think again!" he heard. Lan didn't even have time to be baffled before he was thrown up into the air by Sonic. When he landed, Sonic stopped in front of him. "So much for that idea, huh?" he taunted, But what really got to Lan was Sonic's condition; he didn't have a scratch on him.

* * *

Shadow had been focusing on Sonic's battle ever since he saw him use the ring. He held up his wrist with his own ring attached.

"Amazing that so much power can be contained in something like this," he mused.

"You said it," Rouge said from behind him. "You really think that it'll work for you, too?"

"Don't look at me," Shadow replied. "All I know is that Sonic seems to think so. It does make some sense, I suppose, seeing as we both have the same basic abilities. But I guess we'll find out soon enough."

* * *

The metal scraping continued from inside the group of stones. Finally, one of the cubes was beginning to shake until it disappeared. Knuckles was in the now open gap, breathing hard. But Chaud noticed something different about his hands; each now sported a metal gauntlet that had two large, curved blades where his spiked knuckles would have been.

"Wha… What are those things?" Chaud asked.

"What, these?" Knuckles responded. "Just a little thing I call… the Shovel Claws."

"Where did they come from?" Chaud asked, as that was puzzling him the most.

"Tell you what," Knuckles said. "I didn't ask you about your little costume changing gimmick, so don't ask me about these. Instead, just go with it." Knuckles took his own advice and charged at Chaud with his new weapons.

Chaud held up his sword in defense. Knuckles brought his hand forward so that the blades made contact with Chaud's. The red sword broke in two. The severed piece fell to the ground before disappearing and the hilt dissolved back into a hand.

"Guess digital swords aren't all they're _cracked_ up to be," Knuckles joked.

"They're also not the only things I've got," Chaud said. "Oh, and as a word of advice, I wouldn't stand this close if I were you." Knuckles immediately got the hint and jumped back a few yards.

But just before he landed he realized something. _Why would he warn me like that unless it was… _"A trap!" he said aloud. He hit the ground and it exploded beneath his feet.

"A Landmine, actually, but that was a good guess," Chaud said. But when the smoke cleared, Knuckles was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a large hole where the mine had rested. But looking at it gave Chaud an uneasy feeling.

Suddenly, he heard a rumbling near the now-abandoned Rock Cubes. The ground finally broke and revealed a Shovel Claw. Knuckles jumped up on top of the rocks. Chaud realized what had happened; Knuckles had managed to get through the blast and dug into the already weak earth.

"I'll admit, you surprised me," Knuckles said, "but I've been known to bounce back from even the worst ruse."

"You say that like it's happened before," Chaud said.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Knuckles said. "Instead, I'd rather do this." He jumped behind the rocks. One of them suddenly flew over to Chaud.

"Gold Fist!" he yelled. He barely had time to punch the rock as it came to him. The stone exploded into tiny bits. But he wasn't allowed to rest yet, as Knuckles pushed the other two cubes forward.

* * *

"Looks like we're not dealing with a pushover," Maylu could hear Roll saying.

"Especially since _we're _the ones getting pushed over," she returned. She moved her arm toward Amy and tried another Roll Arrow.

Amy saw the energy sphere headed toward her. She held her hammer and swung at it, sending it back like the last time.

Maylu knew she couldn't dodge the blast in time, so she didn't try to run. Instead she said, "Damage Copier!" She held out her arm toward Amy and a small circle appeared on the hedgehog's body. The blast still hit Maylu, but Amy also felt a sudden pain as if she had gotten hit instead.

As she got up, she said, "What happened?"

"Damage Copier does damage to a competitor when an attack hits another one," Maylu explained. "Simply put, you took the same damage I did."

Amy continued the battle by running over to Maylu with her hammer in hand. But as she held it above her head she tripped under the weight of it. The hammer fell out of her hands a few inches away.

But as she reached for it, Maylu held her hand out and said, "Rush Hole!" A large hole appeared under the hammer and it fell in. Amy tried to go after it, but was stopped by common sense. The hole grew smaller and eventually closed. Maylu retracted her hand and held the other one above her. The hole reappeared and the hammer fell out of it. It landed in her hand but she was caught off guard by the weight.

"Gold Fist, battlechip in, download." Maylu's hand took on a golden hue. She found the hammer much easier to lift. With her newfound strength, she threw it at Amy, who jumped up to avoid getting hit.

As the hammer passed under Amy, Maylu came up with an idea. "Time Boomer, battlechip in, download." The bomb appeared on the ground in front of the hammer's path. Amy saw it and attempted to catch it. But she wasn't fast enough and the bomb exploded as the hammer landed right next to it. When the smoke cleared, only parts of it could be seen scattered everywhere.

"Hey," she said angrily, "they don't sell these things in hardware stores, you know."

"Uh, Maylu," Roll said, "I'm pretty sure that you know as well as I do that you don't destroy a girl's possessions." Suddenly, Amy ran up to Maylu screaming in anger.

"Point taken," Maylu said. "Aqua Tower!" She slammed her hand against the ground and a tower of water came gushing out of the spot she touched. The tower moved toward Amy and launched her into the sky.

* * *

"How do I hit him when he can't stand still?" Lan asked.

"Easy," Sonic said, "just find something that's faster than me."

"Alright then. Dash Attack, battlechip in, download." A fish-like creature appeared out of nowhere and sped over to Lan. Lan jumped on top of the Fishy and flew toward Sonic.

"Now that's what I call fast," Sonic said. Lan flew to Sonic's position but missed. "Just not fast enough," he finished. He spun into a ball and struck the Fishy with his homing attack.

Lan's situation looked hopeless. "There's got to be a way I can hit this guy."

"Well, the Blaster seemed to work last time," MegaMan said.

"Maybe," Lan responded, "but I don't have any more Blaster chips." He thought for a moment. "But I think I've got something better. Spreader, battlechip in, download." Lan's arm transformed into some kind of gun that Sonic couldn't identify. Lan didn't waste time aiming and just fired. Energy blasts same from the center and edges of the gun. Sonic moved and zigzagged every way he could. Not one blast from the round even touched him.

"This is ridiculous," Lan said out loud.

"You're telling me," Sonic said. "I've had a tougher time dodging Eggman's robots."

Lan thought it better not to ask but took it as a slight insult. "Okay, I've got one more trick up my sleeve. Spreader, battlechips in, double download."

"You realize you're going to need an extra arm to hold three of those things."

"You'll see," Lan said. The second Spreader took up his other arm. He moved both arms close together and a blue light shone around them. When it dissipated, the two Spreaders had fused together. "Program Advance!"

"That doesn't sound good," Sonic said worriedly.

"Hyper Burst!" The attack came out like a normal Spreader, but Sonic could tell it got some new power. He tried running around like he did before, but there were so many blasts he found it hard to predict where they would end up. Finally, one of them hit Sonic dead on.

Lan halted the attack and went to see how his attack did. Sonic was lying on his back, tired.

"So, how's that for fast?"

"I'd call it 'unpredictable' rather than 'fast,'" Sonic said.

* * *

"Area Steal!" Chaud said. He disappeared before the cubes could even touch him. Knuckles began to wonder where Chaud was, but he got his answer when he heard a faint sound behind him. He quickly moved to avoid the approaching golden fist.

"Not bad," Chaud simply said before attempting another punch. Knuckles dodged again and jumped. Chaud braced himself, waiting for him to attack. But Knuckles never came close to him. Instead, he prepared to land on the ground with both hands below him. He began to rotate his arms and when he struck the ground, he dug into it and sank into the earth.

"Shovel Claws," Chaud said. "Good name. Salamander, battlechip in, download." Chaud's body was surrounded in flames. He jumped up, creating a stream of fire in his wake. He followed Knuckles into the hole he made.

Knuckles felt the area around grow hotter. He turned and found Chaud charging at him with fire surrounding him. Knuckles quickly dug upward to the surface. He finally broke through and jumped out of the hole. Chaud immediately followed and flew up high.

Knuckles was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but he saw Chaud coming back down. Instinctively, Knuckles dug back into the ground. Chaud scoffed at his actions.

Once again, he followed Knuckles into the hole. Knuckles broke out of the ground with Chaud still on him. The process repeated for a few minutes.

Finally, while Chaud was up in the air he noticed his body was getting cooler. He looked around himself and noticed the flames were disappearing. He quickly tried to lower himself to the ground. But the flames were gone before he was halfway down. Without anything to keep himself in the air, all he could do was fall and think to himself, _Air Shoes. That's what I should've loaded into the PET._

Knuckles saw Chaud falling and a smile came across his face. He took his Shovel Claws off and jumped up. He met Chaud, smiled mischievously, and punched him in the back, sending back up. When Chaud finally hit the ground, his cross-fused form was breaking apart and didn't last long. The ProtoMan-like suit dissolved and turned back into the PET, which ejected the Synchro Chip.

"Hey," Knuckles said, approaching Chaud as he got up. "Not that I'm complaining, but what happened with that fire thing you were doing?"

"My guess," Chaud answered, "I must have used too much of the Salamander's energy and it just cut out at the wrong time."

* * *

Maylu watched as the jet of water lifted Amy into the air. Thinking she'd had enough, Maylu stopped the Water Tower and activated her Roll Arrow. She pointed the bow upward, waiting for Amy.

As she waited, she heard a scream, that almost sounded like a battle cry. She finally found Amy head straight for her. What truly amazed her was what she was holding: a hammer virtually identical to the one she lost. Maylu was about to fire, but the added weight from Amy's hammer got her to Maylu first. She swung and Maylu was knocked sideways.

When she got up, Maylu saw that Amy had already landed. "Where did that come from?" she asked.

Amy sighed and said, "I already said that was for me to know and you to… you know what, forget it." She threw her hand behind her and switched her hammer for one with a smaller mallet.

Maylu looked at the new hammer. _No doubt for more agile attacks._ She pointed her bow at the pink hedgehog and fired, believing that the lighter weight wouldn't allow her to block it.

Upon seeing the energy blast, Amy knelt down and jumped up. Maylu looked on with both shock and realization. Amy didn't have to block; the hammer was light enough for her to actually jump with it.

Amy finally approached Maylu and began swinging. Maylu dodged but Amy attempted another swing. For every miss, Amy came back with another strike ready. Maylu had to put distance between them if she was going to counterattack.

"MetGuard!" she yelled. A hard hat-like barrier appeared over her. Amy struck the hat. The impact created a shockwave that blasted her back a few yards. Her hammer landed about a foot away.

As Amy stood up, she noticed she was facing Sonic and Lan's battle area. She saw Lan shoot a lot of energy shots, most of which actually hit Sonic. The barrage was over in a matter of seconds and Sonic was on his back.

"No, Sonic!" Amy almost yelled.

"Lightning Strike, battlechip in, download!" Maylu yelled. A lightning bolt struck Amy's hammer and sent electricity through the surrounding area. Amy was zapped before she even knew what was going on.

When the electricity finally stopped, Amy dropped onto her back. Maylu reverted to her original form and walked over to her.

"Hey, how you feeling?" she asked.

"Believe it or not," Amy answered, "I've had better days."

"I hope you won't mind my asking," Maylu said, "but why didn't you try to jump out of the lightning's path?"

"Kinda hard to when you're focused on your boyfriend rather than the battle."

Maylu chuckled a little. "Take it from me," she said, "you don't want to worry about things like that when you're doing something important." _Maybe I should follow that advice._

* * *

When all six competitors finally felt like they regained their stamina, everyone headed over to the center of the three battle areas. The dimensional area started to disappear.

"Guess that's our cue to get going," Sonic said. "We'll catch you guys later, then."

"See ya, Sonic," Lan said as they shook hands. The Mobians turned and walked away.

"See, Maylu?" Chaud said. "These guys lost one to two as well, and they don't seem to mind at all."

**Hopefully Maylu will remember that.**

**Anyway, here's a list of the battlechips I used that weren't in the anime (they actually appeared in the _MegaMan Battle Network_ video game series, which the anime is based on):  
Invis  
CopyDamage (Damage Copier)  
Lightning (Lightning Strike)  
Again, this is just my knowledge only, which actually isn't saying much. If these chips _have_ been used in the anime, and you notice anything that seems off, don't hesitate to tell me.**

**Next time on _Action Anime Brawl,_ the start of round 3 and Yu-Gi-Oh! vs. Naruto.**


	14. R3B1 True Power

**Finally! A brand new chapter! Now don't read too much into this. This does not mean this story is out of its hiatus; just that I finally was able to open this and dedicate myself to actually finishing this chapter (wasn't easy, either). So let's skip everything else and get right to it, huh? Ladies and gents, otakus of all ages: Naruto vs. Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these franchises. Heck, I don't even really like them. I only included them because they were big names, I knew enough about them, and I didn't know about many other anime at the time of starting this project.**

**Round 3**

Night had fallen on the Crossroad of Worlds. Unheard by anyone save its speaker, a voice whispered, "Now it is time for them to battle in the darkness of night. For if they can do that, they can face the darkness of evil incarnate: the Atrocity."

**Battle 1  
****True Power**

"Yes!" Naruto almost shouted. "That's two wins for me! I am on a roll!"

"Naruto," Rock said to him, "this is not a contest. It is a training phase for a much bigger battle."

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said. "But that doesn't mean I can't take some names while I'm at it, right?"

"I will admit you have a point, Naruto," Kakashi said. Naruto smiled smugly at Rock. "By treating the battles seriously, you fight more efficiently. However, Rock is right; you shouldn't forget our true purpose for being here." Rock returned Naruto's look, to which Naruto simply scowled.

Everyone had noticed that it was getting darker. "Master," Sakura said, "I think we should rest for the night."

Ino was about to speak but Sasuke held her back. "She has a point Ino. Everyone else will most likely be doing the same thing."

"But what if there are some people who don't agree with that idea?" Ino asked.

"I've already been looking around, and I think I have the perfect spot," Sasuke said. He led them to an area covered with trees, all gathered closely together. "It should provide us plenty of camouflage, and even if someone does see us, they won't want to battle in an area where mobility is limited."

Everyone had little argument. Kakashi, however, whispered to himself, "We shall see." He was staring into the distance.

* * *

Everyone heard Joey yawn. "Man, am I tired."

"Not me," Jaden said, "I'm ready for some action."

"Perhaps, Jaden," Yugi said, "but we can't assume we'll find any at this time. We should look for a suitable place to spend the night." Everyone spread out and searched through the area.

Alexis glanced among the trees, but her thoughts were elsewhere. "Hey, Alexis," someone called. Alexis turned her head to see Jaden. "Something up?"

She blushed a little. "You could tell, huh? I was thinking about my duel with Zoe."

"What about it?" Jaden asked as he looked around.

"I was playing the card 'A Rival Appears,'" she said, "and suddenly I felt that I made a wrong move; actually, 'impossible' is a better word. That's when I got this funny feeling just by looking at her dinosaurs. I was able to identify them with a level."

"What, you mean like a monster card level?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah. I think the Master put that thought in my head so I could still play that card."

"Come to think of it," Jaden said, "During my duel with May, I was also able to use certain cards and effects that I shouldn't have been able to use. But I didn't think about it much. It went as though I'd done it before."

They both heard a scoff. "Personally, I think you two are just reading too much into it." It was Chazz.

"What would you know, Chazz?" Alexis said. "You haven't even done one battle yet."

"Still, it sounds like a lot of nonsense," Chazz said.

Jaden was about to come back at him when he noticed something. "Hey, someone get the others." Alexis left to find everyone else.

"So, what hardly interesting thing did you find this time?" Chazz asked.

"You know, you're beginning to remind me of Kaiba's attitude toward Joey," Jaden said. Alexis soon returned with the rest of the group behind her.

"What did you find Jaden?" Yugi asked.

"Something comfortable, I hope," Joey said.

"Actually, I think it's a person," Jaden said. Everyone huddled around him to get a better look. The man that Jaden saw looked like he had a mask that covered most of his face.

"Should we just leave?" Mai asked.

"He's looking right at us," Kaiba said. "Let's see what his motives are first." The figure held up a hand moved it in a beckoning motion.

"I think it's safe to say that he knows we're here," Bastion said.

"And it's also safe to say that he wants to battle," Mai said. The figure pointed to his left before he disappeared.

"What should we do?" Alexis asked.

"He already knows where we are," Yugi said. "Now he wants us to find him." He walked to where the man was standing. "And I bet I know what happens when we do."

* * *

Everyone was close to completing the structures that would serve as temporary shelters for the night. There were plenty of fallen branches to work with.

Suddenly, everyone heard a rustle. It sounded as though someone was approaching.

"Should we hide?" Rock asked.

"I doubt it would do any good," Sasuke pointed out. "We wouldn't be able to maintain our cover for long, and they'd eventually find us." Everyone resignedly agreed, all except Kakashi, who made little movement.

Everyone looked at the new group that had found them; everyone was in their late teens and had a peculiar device on their left arms.

"Greetings," the leader said. "My name is Yugi Mutou. My friends are Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba, Mai Valentine, Jaden Yuki, Syrus Truesdale, Bastion Misawa, Alexis Rhodes, and Chazz Princeton."

Kakashi stepped forward. "I am Kakashi Hatake. These are my students and their friends, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Hurano, Ino Yamanaka, and Rock Lee."

Joey spoke up, "Hey aren't you that guy who led us here?" He pointed to Kakashi.

Kakashi shrugged and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Something in his voice suggested he wasn't telling the whole story.

Sakura said, "Our master's been here the entire time. We would have known if he'd brought strangers here."

"Regardless of who or what led us to you," Kaiba said, "it's apparent that they wanted us to meet like this."

"That's fine with me," Jaden said. "At the Dueling Academy, they teach us to battle in any situation."

"'Dueling?'" Ino asked. "What kind of 'dueling,' exactly?"

Yugi pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket. "'Dueling' refers to playing a trading card game called Duel Monsters. The creatures depicted on these cards seemingly have the ability to come to life." ("Are we ever going to battle actual people?" Ino whispered to herself.)

"So how do we win, then?" Sasuke asked.

"Each duelist will start the match with 2000 life points," Yugi said. "By destroying our monsters, those life points decrease. When they reach zero, the duelist loses the match."

"Sounds fairly simple," Kakashi said. "You will win when those from our side cannot continue."

"Then let us begin," the Master said suddenly. "For this round, the pairs are: Yugi and Naruto, Joey and Kakashi, Jaden and Ino, Bastion and Rock, and Chazz and Sasuke. Take your places." Everyone walked around the forest floor in search of a suitable battle spot. The thick foliage and near darkness made it difficult for them to see where they were going. Soon, everyone was ready.

"Three…" The duelists drew five cards. "Two…" The ninjas stood in a battle stance. "One! Start the battle!"

"I summon the Queen's Knight in attack mode," Yugi said. A female appeared, dressed in armor and carrying a sword and shield. "You may have the first move," Yugi said to Naruto.

Naruto took out a kunai and threw it at Queen's Knight. She raised her shield, and the knife bounced harmlessly off it.

"Nice defense," Naruto said. "But if she only uses her shield, she won't be able to defend from everywhere." He brought his hands together, forming a cross with his fingers. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto became surrounded in a puff of smoke, and when it dissipated, there were close to ten figures similar, if not identical, to Naruto. They all surrounded Queen and each pulled out one kunai. "Let's see you defend against this!" they all yelled before launching their kunai.

Queen held up her shield and moved her sword in a circular motion behind her. Any kunai that actually touched her, which were few, only touched her armor, minimizing any damage. The kunai bounced off the armor and hit the Shadow Clones, causing them to disperse.

"Man, how does she do that?" Naruto said exasperatingly.

"The Queen's Knight possesses armor that acts as the ultimate defense," Yugi said. "But that says nothing for her attack, the Majestic Sword Swipe!" Queen ran up to Naruto with her sword ready. As she came close, all Naruto could do was try to stop it somehow. Yugi suddenly realized something: his previous opponents, and those of his teammates, had faced against creatures that had natural defenses, so swords and other dangerous weapons were never truly an issue. However, he was now facing a human opponent with no such defenses. He tried to call off the attack, but he was too late; he could see Queen's sword going through Naruto. But as she withdrew her sword, he noticed Naruto's wasn't visibly damaged.

Naruto also found this strange; the sword had literally passed through him as though either he nor she was truly there. Still, he felt a sharp pain as it passed. "What's going on here?"

Yugi thought for a moment before saying, "I believe I know. In our world, our monsters are merely holographic projections. The Master made them solid enough to damage and be damaged, but possibly only so much, as he would not want his warriors to be fatally injured."

"Then why does this still hurt?" Naruto asked.

"My best guess is you're feeling the pain not dissimilar to what we feel when our life points are damaged," Yugi surmised.

Naruto finally regained himself. "Then prepare to feel extreme pain, 'cause I'm ending this battle here and now." He held up his hand as though he was holding an invisible ball within it. A swirling mass of energy began to form inside it. "Queen's Knight," he said, "meet Rasengan!"

* * *

"I summon Battle Warrior in attack position." Joey said as he set the card on his duel disk. Kakashi stared at the impressive physique of his opponent. "I'll start this by having Battle Warrior use his Ultimate Battle Fist attack." The warrior ran toward Kakashi with his fist ready. Kakashi made no attempt to move. The warrior punched and Joey felt elated; this battle would be easy.

Unfortunately, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke, and two pieces of wood flew apart from one another. "What the heck…?" Joey started, but was interrupted by the sight of shuriken flying at Battle Warrior. Joey told him to block the stars.

As soon as he did, though, they heard Kakashi's voice saying, "It's not wise to leave yourself open." Suddenly, Joey saw a bright, piercing light that hurt his eyes in the darkness. Suddenly, Kakashi ran out of the foliage and thrust his hand toward Battle Warrior. He looked as though he was holding the light in his bare hand. But Joey noticed that it looked more like lightning. It pierced the warrior's armor and he was destroyed almost instantly. Joey's life points fell to 1650.

"What was all that?" Joey asked in astonishment.

"_All_ of it?" Kakashi responded. "Listen carefully then. First, I used a Substitution jutsu to distract you for a bit. The shuriken was extra insurance, simply to let your guard down. When it was, I used the Chidori, or lightning blade, to attack."

"I'm surprised you could see everything," Joey remarked. "That light was so bright, it's a wonder you didn't go blind. And you're blind enough as it is."

"Believe me," Kakashi said, "just using the Chidori is enough to make you go blind. It takes someone with a Sharingan, an all-seeing eye, like mine to use to its fullest potential."

"And if that eye is as powerful as you say it is, it probably protected you from the light as well."

"A safe assumption. Now, are we going to continue?" Kakashi stood in a battle stance.

"In that case," Joey said, pulling another card from his hand, "I summon Alligator's Sword." As the humanoid lizard materialized, Kakashi threw a kunai.

* * *

Jaden looked through his hand and pulled out his Elemental Hero Sparkman card, which he placed on his duel disk. Ino looked at her opponent. "That's a monster?" she asked.

"It may look human," Jaden replied, "but no human can do what this guy can do."

"We'll see," Ino said as she ran toward Sparkman. She reached into her pouch and took out a kunai. She threw it at Sparkman.

"Use Static Shockwave to defend," Jaden said. Sparkman's fist lit up with electricity and he fired it at the knife, knocking it off balance. But as he focused on stopping the flying projectile, Ino snuck up behind him and jumped onto his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and heaved forward. Sparkman lunged in the direction Ino pushed him and he smacked his face into a tree. Ino jumped off Sparkman and kicked him, lodging him further into the tree.

As Ino escaped, Sparkman pulled himself away from the tree. He started looking for Ino, but the ninja trainee had already hidden. Not even Jaden was sure where she was.

"Alright, come on out!" Jaden yelled.

"If you insist," he heard Ino say. But something unnerved Jaden; it seemed to him that there were many voices that sounded like Ino. He soon saw why; coming from all around Sparkman were ten figures that looked exactly like Ino. "If this works," they all seemed to say, "I'll have Sakura to thank for this." Ino and her energy clones surrounded Sparkman in a circle.

Jaden quickly took a card from his hand. "I play the spell card Hero Heart. It takes Sparkman's attack and divides it into two, allowing me to attack two places at the same time. Spark Storm!" At Jaden's command, Sparkman separated his hands at opposite ends of each other and loosed two devastating electric attacks. Jaden was sure at least one would hit the real Ino.

When the attack was finished, there were still four Inos left. The others had vanished. "Missed," the remaining Inos said as they smiled.

* * *

"I summon the Element Dragon in attack mode," Bastion said. He put his card on the duel disk and a strange looking dragon appeared on the field. Rock wasted no time in striking first. He ran up to the dragon and moved his leg upward toward its head. The dragon dodged, but Rock would not be discouraged so easily. He jumped up and grabbed the dragon's neck.

Element Dragon tried to shake him off as best it could. But Rock seemed determined to hold on tight. After a while, the dragon slowed its movements. Rock used that as an opportunity to raise his fist and hit it at a weak point on the neck. The dragon roared in pain.

Bastion took a card from his hand. "I play the spell card Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards from my deck." He took the cards from the top of the deck. "Now it's time to send in some backup. I play Fox Fire in defense mode." A small fox with a flame of the end of its tail appeared and stood defensively.

"And how does that constitute as backup?" Rock asked.

"Because when there is a fire monster on the field," Bastion explained, "Element Dragon receives 500 attack points. Now, use Fire Wind!" Element Dragon beat its wings and embers flew out from them. The wind from the wings alone knocked Rock off the dragon while the embers did the actual damage.

"That did hurt," Rock said. "But I can feel that you do not exist on this plane of reality. Therefore, I have no qualms about unleashing my next attack to its full potential." Rock suddenly disappeared. Bastion attempted to locate him and found him on the back of Element Dragon. Despite the immense size difference, Rock was able to spin it like it weighed little.

Bastion quickly took another card from his hand. "I summon Oxygeddon in attack mode!" The minute the gaseous dragon appeared on the field, Rock had succeeded in throwing Element Dragon away from him. Bastion knew this was a kill shot. Still, he smiled.

Before Element Dragon stopped, it flapped its wings one last time, releasing the embers once again. Rock didn't see it in time and got caught in the wave. Element Dragon dissolved soon after.

"I have known many creatures that give one final attack in their last moments," Rock said, "but you did not tell your dragon to attack. Tell me, do they have a consciousness of their own?"

"That point might be debated for some time," Bastion said, "but this was nothing more than another effect of Element Dragon. When I summoned Oxygeddon, there was now a wind monster on the field. When this happens, Element Dragon attacks the opponent automatically if it is destroyed in battle."

"Very clever of you," Rock said. "It seems as though I am dealing with a smart opponent."

"And as you are no doubt well aware," Bastion replied, "that kind tends to be the most dangerous."

* * *

"I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode," Chazz said. He placed a card on his duel disk and a large red and white dragon appeared. "Make your move."

Sasuke quickly made two signs with his hands. "Fireball Jutsu!" His mouth began to expel fire that surrounded the dragon in a sphere. Chazz could feel the heat despite the fact that he was well enough away from the battle zone.

The fire ceased and Chazz met a startling sight. Masked Dragon had fallen in exhaustion, but what was really a testament to the power of the fire Sasuke created was the crater the dragon lay in. Masked Dragon dissolved and Chazz's life points went to 1400.

_That was a powerful attack, much more than I'd thought,_ Chazz thought to himself. "But that doesn't mean I'll give up," he said out loud. "You may have defeated my dragon, but another one's coming soon. When Masked Dragon is defeated by battle, he sends another dragon in his place. And that dragon is one of my specialties: Armed Dragon Level 3!" A new dragon appeared on the field in front of Sasuke. Unlike the last one, this dragon looked mechanical, since its entire body was covered in metal plating. However, this one was smaller, barely reaching Sasuke's chest.

"This little thing is going to beat me?" Sasuke asked in disbelief. He reached into his pouch and pulled something out. It looked like a ring with blades folded onto it. Sasuke flipped his wrist and the blades extended, forming a large shuriken. "Let's see how it handles the Shadow Windmill." He threw the weapon at Armed Dragon.

"I play the spell card Fiend's Sanctuary." Chazz held up a card that had an image of a gargoyle on an altar. "With this card, I summon a Metal Fiend Token." The gargoyle on the image appeared in front of Armed Dragon. "And whenever you try to hurt it…" the blade pierced the token… "you take the damage." Sasuke immediately felt a sharp sting in his chest as the token disappeared.

Chazz drew a card. "Now, as for Armed Dragon Level 3, I'll play my Level Up spell card, allowing it to advance to level five!" Armed Dragon glowed and grew in size. When it stopped, its body became more organic and covered in blades. "Now, I'll attack with Infernal Roar!" Armed Dragon opened its mouth and roared loudly.

* * *

Naruto ran at Queen's Knight with the Rasengan in front of him. Queen held her shield in front of her. Naruto slammed the energy ball onto it, but the shield successfully blocked it. Still, Naruto was able to force the shield toward her. Queen suddenly thrust her shield forward and up, sending Naruto over her. Naruto landed on his feet behind Queen and connected the Rasengan with her body. Queen convulsed under the immense energy and shattered.

"Yes!" Naruto yelled when the Queen's Knight disappeared. "Naruto Uzumaki, three for three!"

"I wouldn't celebrate too soon," Yugi said. "I summon the Feral Imp in attack mode!" A strange creature appeared next to Naruto, green-furred and decidedly wild

"What the—?" Naruto jumped back in surprise. "What is this? I won, didn't I?"

"You're right," Yugi said, "you didn't. Remember you win when my life points reach zero." He held up his duel disk; the life-point counter read 1500.

Naruto tried to look calm as he said, "Okay, no problem. I can still take this thing out with the Rasengan. It won my last two fights, it can win this. And I've got plenty of energy to use it."

"But all that matters little if you can't actually use it," Yugi returned. With nimble movements, Feral Imp jumped out of the way of Naruto's attack. With the ninja's attack averted for now, Yugi drew a card from his deck.

"I play the spell card Horn of the Unicorn!" The horn on Imp's head grew longer. "Magic Lightning Attack!" A stream of electricity flowed out of the horn and struck Naruto.

"I won't lose," Naruto said as he struggled to regain himself.

"From what you've said earlier," Yugi said, "both of your previous matches have been met with victory. I would also believe that you now think you're unstoppable. Trust me, Naruto, defeat can come to you from anywhere, especially when you least expect it."

"Defeat this!" Naruto yelled. He held up his hand and revealed another Rasengan. He charged forward ready to destroy the Imp. It jumped out of the way with wild and nimble moves. "Let's see you move away from this," Naruto said. He realeased the Rasengan and crossed his fingers again. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Many Narutos appeared in a puff of smoke. All of them held up their hands, each with a Rasengan. One of them jumped at the Imp, but it dodged, only to land near another incoming Naruto.

"Can you find me…" "…when you don't even know…" "…which is the real me?" they asked, with one adding the next part of the previous one's phrase.

"Don't be so sure that your teamwork will get you anywhere," Yugi said, "especially since we're in the Feral Imp's home field." Yugi waited until the Imp stopped jumping. It was growling at the Naruto in front of it. "Magic Lightning Attack!" Electricity shot out of its horn and struck the figure in front of him. The other Naruto clones disappeared and only the real Naruto, the one that was struck, was left.

* * *

Kaiba watched Yugi's battle intently. Sakura looked up at him and noticed his unfaltering gaze.

"So, uh," she started, "do you, um, have a thing for Yugi?" Kaiba looked at her. "Well, you do seem to be focused on his battle."

"Yugi and I share a history," Kaiba explained. "I just want to see how he handles his new situation."

"Ah, rivals, I get it," Sakura nodded. She glanced at Ino.

"Based on the battle so far," Kaiba continued, "I would say Yugi will beat Naruto easily."

"Kid does need to be taken down a few notches."

"Oh?"

"He's gotten something of a swelled head lately," Sakura explained. "Yeah, I say 'lately' like it's a new thing," she added sarcastically.

"Yeah, I know the type," Kaiba said. He looked over at Joey.

"Wow," Sakura said after a while. "I can't believe how similar our worlds are."

"'The more things change,' I guess."

* * *

"Alligator's Sword, knock that knife outta the way!" Joey yelled. Alligator swung its sword at the incoming kunai, throwing it off course and sticking into the ground. "Heh, I'd like to see you try that again," he said confidently. "But first, I'll play a trap card facedown." A giant card appeared on the field behind Alligator. "Now, Alligator's Sword, attack!" The lizard warrior charged at Kakashi with its blade ready.

Kakashi merely closed his eye and stood there relaxed. As soon as Alligator came up to him and swung its sword, Kakashi leaped out of the way. Alligator slashed again, but Kakashi was moving too quickly. Finally, after a huge swing, Kakashi charged in and struck Alligator while its sword was out of the way. The force of the blow knocked Alligator back to Joey's side of the field.

"Do you understand what I did there?" Kakashi asked. "Or do you have a basic idea?"

"Yeah, I got the idea," Joey replied. "You're a ninja. You guys are supposed to be tricky."

"I prefer to think of it as… smarter than you," Kakashi returned. "Now, you said you wanted to see my Kunai trick again? I should warn you: be careful what you ask for." He reached one hand into his pouch and took out four kunai, one between each finger and thumb. He did the same for the other hand. He raised both hands and whipped them forward, letting go of the kunai.

Surprisingly, none of them actually hit Alligator; in fact, most were lodged into the ground in front of it.

"Bad aim, much?" Joey quipped. Kakashi only waved his finger as if chiding him. Joey looked back at the kunai. He noticed that they all had some sort of tags attached to the handles, unlike the last kunai. "Wait a sec," Joey said. "These aren't supposed to be—?"

"Explosives?" Kakashi finished. "You'd be correct. And your lizard is so big that avoiding them will be an utter impossibility, which will be an issue since he can only use close-range combat. I, however, have no such limits." He started moving his hands in a series of patterns. "Lightning Beast Jutsu!"

He held his hand out and lightning appeared from it. Unlike the Chidori, this didn't seem as bright, though it still lit up the area. The lightning started to twist and morph together into what looked like a dog. Some of the lightning connected the dog to Kakashi's hand. Suddenly, the dog bounded forward, ready to attack Alligator. Its jumps were so graceful, it barely even came near the booby-trapped kunai.

Joey quickly drew a card, praying that his luck would turn. When he saw the image, he immediately said, "I sacrifice my Alligator's Sword!" The lizard disappeared just as the dog was about to make contact. Kakashi, expecting to not need his attack anymore, cut off the electricity before he realized what happened.

"What was the point of that?" Kakashi asked.

"Simple," Joey replied; "not only do I keep my Life Points safe for a few more minutes," he showed his duel disk to Kakashi; it still read 1650, "but now I'm able to summon a more powerful monster: and that monster is Jinzo!" He set a card on his disk and a humanoid being appeared on the field; he was covered in green robes and armor that made him look intimidating, to say nothing of the mask that all but obscured his scarred face.

"Now first," Joey said, "I'll have Jinzo attack with Cyber Energy Shock." Jinzo crossed his hands in front of him. The hands glowed with power. Then, Jinzo brought them in front of him and sent out a shockwave that blasted Kakashi off his feet.

"Now I'll activate my trap card, Kunai with Chain," the giant card flipped up, revealing a blade on the end of a chain, "which I'll equip to Jinzo to raise his attack by 500." The weapon shot out of the card and flew to Jinzo, who caught it and held it like he was ready to use it. "Now Jinzo, attack!" Jinzo ran toward Kakashi, swinging the chain like a lasso. Kakashi was confident that the kunai explosives would stop him, but to his shock, Jinzo ran right past them, none of them going off. Kakashi couldn't defend himself in time and was knocked back by the blade.

When Kakashi stood up, he said, "How did you get past my kunai?"

"Jinzo's special ability is traps," Joey said, "namely to prevent them from ever being a problem."

Kakashi closed his eye and breathed. "But can he handle a more sentient problem." He brought his fingers together to look like a cross. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

* * *

Jaden looked through his hand to see if he had any cards that could keep the four Inos from gaining any more of an advantage than they had now. Unfortunately, nothing would have helped.

"So, what's your next move?" the Inos said.

Jaden started to panic and drew a card. He looked at the image. Then he turned to his hand. "Okay," he said, "since you seem to be the more-the-merrier type, I'll summon Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode." The Inos stopped as another figure appeared beside Sparkman. This one looked like a native wild man who was very muscular and had a large sword strapped to his back.

"Now I'll equip the Cyclone Boomerang, increasing Wildheart's attack power by 500," Jaden continued. The new weapon appeared in Wildheart's hand. "Now, Wildheart, attack with Wild Walloping Boomerang!" Wildheart threw the boomerang toward one of the Ino clones.

Unfortunately, the target jumped out of the way. All four Inos kneeled on the ground. "That's not going to help us," they all said. They held their hands toward Wildheart in an "O" shape. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!" Suddenly, they all fell limp.

Jaden wondered what was happening. Meanwhile, the boomerang, which had missed all the targets, was coming back to Wildheart, but the warrior didn't make a move to reach for it. Before Jaden realized it, the boomerang struck Wildheart and he disintegrated. The boomerang, however, just kept flying.

"What the—?' Jaden started in surprise as his life points dropped to 1500.

"Mind Transfer Jutsu," the Inos said as they got up. "The real me possessed that thing's actions. Or should I say the lack thereof? I released my hold on him just as the boomerang was closing in."

"Clever," Jaden said. Ino noticed he had a smile on his face. "But there's something I forgot to mention: when Wildheart is destroyed by an opponent's special technique while holding the boomerang, all spell and trap cards are destroyed and damage is done depending on how many were destroyed." Suddenly, the boomerang came back and sliced through one of the energy clones and did the same thing to the other two before finally connecting with the real Ino. She fell backwards and sprawled on the ground.

"Now, Sparkman," Jaden said, "attack with Static Shockwave!" Sparkman charged up his fists and fired electricity at Ino.

* * *

Rock stared at the two monsters in front of him: one a fox made of fire; the other a dragon made of clouds. So far, Bastion's life points stood at 1750 after Element Dragon was destroyed. But Rock was still put off by Bastion's quick thinking.

He studied his two opponents again. Fox Fire was standing relatively still, while Oxygeddon was in constant movement, almost like it was waiting for its next command.

_Bastion said the Fox Fire is in defensive position,_ Rock thought to himself, _while the Oxygeddon is in offense. Attacking an enemy who does nothing but defend will be a waste of time, so my time will be better spent on the dragon. I cannot say how I will defeat an entity made of air and cloud, but by that same logic, I cannot say how I was able to move the Element Dragon._

Rock reached into his pouch and pulled out several kunai. He focused on his target and threw them at Oxygeddon. The knives flew straight, but when they hit Oxygeddon's body, the dragon only merely jerked while the weapons landed on the other side.

"It'll take more than that to truly hurt Oxygeddon," Bastion said. "I would have figured that a ninja like yourself would have something more… unique in mind."

"Forgive me for disappointing your expectations," Rock returned, "but I am only human, a boy who does not have the ability to perform even the most basic of jutsu techniques. I consider myself lucky to even be considered a trainee for the Hidden Leaf Village. But I do have one thing to compensate: willpower. With it, I can accomplish even the most impossible feats."

"We'll see how your willpower fares against my intellect," Bastion said. He reached for his deck and drew a card. "Interesting," he whispered to himself. "And I already have two of the necessary monsters in play." He changed his volume so Rock could hear him announce his move. "I play one facedown card…" a giant card appeared behind the monsters, "and I'll summon the Trojan Horse in attack mode." A large horse made of wood appeared next to the other monsters.

"First," Bastion continued, "I'll attack with Trojan Horse." The horse galloped toward Rock.

"Wood against my fist," Rock said quietly. "Not a good combination." He closed his eyes as the horse trotted further. When it was almost a foot away, Rock opened his eyes, causing the horse to stop. Even Bastion started becoming apprehensive when he noticed the eyes were blank. "Now you will see how my willpower allows me to do what jutsu cannot, courtesy of the Reverse Lotus technique."

Rock jumped up incredibly high and brought his fist down on Trojan. The horse's wooden body cracked and broke in half, destroying him. Bastion looked at his life point counter: 1050 points left.

_Incredible,_ Bastion thought. _None of the other competitors were able to do that much._

Rock said nothing but started running toward Oxygeddon. Bastion called out, "Oxygeddon, attack with Sonic Screech!" Waves of energy flowed out of the wind dragon's mouth. Rock briefly stopped and placed his arms in front of him. The waves surrounded his body, but he was seemingly unaffected. Rock just smirked and started to run again, slower than before, but still at a fast pace.

Bastion looked at his hand again and quickly pulled a card. "I summon Hydrogeddon in attack mode and have him attack with Hydro Gust!" Another creature resembling a dragon made of gasses appeared behind Rock and immediately attacked with a gust of wind. Unlike the previous attack, Rock lurched forward unintentionally and was blown right through Oxygeddon's body.

Rock lied on the ground and panted, apparently out of his berserker phase, but Bastion could tell he wasn't done.

* * *

Sasuke wasn't going to admit to being the least bit concerned, but Armed Dragon's roar sent a small chill down his spine. A fireball appeared in front of the dragon's open mouth. Sasuke was still rooted to his spot from what Chazz would have called fear and the fire overtook him. Sasuke was surprised that, while he could feel the pain, it wasn't as excruciating as real fire.

"Not bad," Sasuke said after the attack had faded. "I'm almost impressed."

"Almost, huh?" Chazz returned. "I'll show you impressive." He drew a card and looked at the image; almost immediately, he mentally cringed. _You just couldn't stay away, could you? _he thought.

_Oh, come on, you love me and you know it,_ a new voice said almost as if answering him.

Chazz looked at his hand. _Maybe I could still use this to my advantage. That kid sure won't take this one seriously._ "I summon Ojama Yellow in defense mode!" he called out. A new creature, small, yellow, and ugly, appeared alongside Armed Dragon: its eyes looked like antennae; its lips were locked in a permanent smile; and it wore a red, white polka-dotted speedo.

"Oh, yeah!" it said in a high pitched voice. "Ojama Yellow is in the house!"

Sasuke thanked whatever higher power didn't allow him to laugh like an idiot at this scene. "Are you kidding me?" he asked as if he felt betrayed. "How is this… _thing_ supposed to impress me?" ("That hurt," Yellow mumbled.)

"True, it's not much to look at, or even rely on," Chazz responded. ("I get no respect.") But this one has its uses. For now, though, I'll play one trap card face down." A giant card appeared behind the monsters.

_Hmph,_ Sasuke thought, _you don't fool me, Chazz. That card is supposed to make that Ojama thing more powerful. Too bad you won't be able to use it. And I'll take out the Armed Dragon in the process._

Sasuke positioned his hands into various signs. "Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" He held his hands out and several small fireballs shot out at the monsters. Armed Dragon, because of his namesake armor, was able to withstand the barrage, but was still damaged. Ojama Yellow, on the other hand, despite its efforts to avoid the attack, was struck by one of the balls and destroyed instantly.

"That puts a cramp on your plans, doesn't it?" Sasuke said proudly.

"Actually," Chazz said, "before you start putting cramps on people's plans, make sure you know what they are first. Otherwise, you might accidentally trigger them." The giant card flipped up. "This is Ojamable," Chazz explained, "and when an Ojama monster is destroyed, it goes into my deck instead of my graveyard." A light shone where Yellow stood before zooming to the deck area of Chazz's duel disk. "In addition, I now draw two cards, but have to discard one." He took out two cards; one of them was his Level Soul card.

_May be useless,_ he thought to himself, _but I have learned better safe than sorry._ He placed the other card in his graveyard slot.

"No matter," Sasuke said. "Because you'll have no monsters after this." He held his hand out and it began to sparkle with electricity. Chazz blocked his eyes, but could still see Sasuke charging at Armed Dragon. He stuck the Chidori into the dragon's body and it disappeared. Sasuke cut off the electricity when he was satisfied with his work. However, Armed Dragon didn't seem to be completely beaten, just hunched over as if exhausted. Chazz still lost 250 points

"You may have defeated my Armed Dragon," Chazz said, "but this dragon is like a phoenix, rising from the ashes of defeat stronger than before. When Armed Dragon Level 5 is destroyed, he comes back at the next level: Level 7!" Armed Dragon stood back up and gained more armor. "Now, Armed Dragon, attack with Dragon Talon!" The dragon charged in with his arm surrounded in fire.

Sasuke just smirked. "I can handle that." He stood in a battle-ready stance for a couple seconds before running at his attacker. He held out his hand and it, like Armed Dragon's arm, began to catch fire. He continued running and, when the two were close, they both struck each other.

Because Sasuke was so small, he was able to avoid Armed Dragon's attack. The dragon was not as lucky. To Chazz's surprise, Armed Dragon disappeared.

"My Sharingan allows me to see what my opponent is doing," Sasuke said, "as well as do it myself. And this attack was much easier to copy since it didn't require much energy projection."

Chazz just stared is shock: his Armed Dragon, at level seven, was beaten in a single blow.

* * *

Alexis chuckled when she saw Armed Dragon fall. "Maybe that'll get him to understand," she said.

"Understand what?" Mai asked.

"Have you noticed that during our battles, we could do things that we couldn't do before," Alexis replied. "Or some things that shouldn't be possible?"

"I guess so," Mai said. "We are in a different world, after all."

"Well, when I talked about it with Jaden, Chazz just wrote it off as my imagination. Hopefully that last move from Sasuke will make him see that this is a whole new game, complete with new rules."

* * *

Naruto stood up after being hit by Imp's attack. "How did that thing know where I was?"

"Remember," Yugi said, "I said we were in Feral Imp's natural habitat. Here in the dark forest, Imp's natural abilities as a creature of the night are expanded, sensing past even the most deceptive of illusions."

Naruto growled. He reached into his pouch and took out a shuriken. He threw it at Imp, but it dodged and clung to one of the trees.

_Gotta find a way to keep up,_ Naruto thought. He placed his hands together to form three signs. "Tranformation Jutsu!" A puff of smoke surrounded his body and when it cleared, a creature that looked like Imp took his place.

Naruto jumped after Imp. The real Imp let go of the tree, but Naruto went after it until he managed to catch it with a scratch his claws. The two became locked in close-range combat until Yugi couldn't tell which Feral Imp he was looking at; Naruto had even managed to copy Imp's enhanced horn.

Yugi looked through his hand. _None of my cards can help find out which one is the real one. And I can't risk this on a random draw. Only one thing left._ "Feral Imp," he said, "attack with Magic Lightning Attack!" One of the Imps' horns started to spark. The other, Naruto, jumped out of the way before Imp fired. This gave Naruto enough time to get behind Imp and slash at its back. He also lowered his head and impaled the Imp with the horn. Imp was destroyed, leaving Yugi's life points at 1250.

Naruto transformed back into his normal body, and Yugi drew a card, wondering if he could turn this around. He looked at the image, then at the rest of his hand. "Perfect," he said to himself. "I play my spell card Monster Reborn, allowing me to summon my Queen's Knight back to the field." The same female warrior from the start of the battle appeared on the field.

"What the—?" Naruto nearly screamed. "Is that even legal?"

"Don't worry," Yugi said. "My life points from her previous defeat are still accounted for, so things are still partially in your favor. I say partially because I now summon a partner of her's: the King's Knight!" A male warrior in armor that was even more regal than Queen appeared near her. King held his sword up and it started to glow.

"What's going on now?" Naruto asked.

"When King's Knight is summoned while his lady is on the field," Yugi explained, "he brings with him the final part of their triune: the Jack's Knight!" Another knight figure appeared between the others; this one was not as regal as the others, but he looked like he possessed more power than them.

"So what if you can create an army?" Naruto challenged, but Yugi could tell he was starting to lose his cool. "I _am_ my own army. Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto started creating more clones of himself, more than enough to easily overwhelm all three knights.

The clones all jumped up. Many armed themselves with kunai while others went a step further with Rasengans. "Now feel the full power of…" "…the Uzu—" "—maki…" "…Barrage!" All the clones dropped toward the knights, ready to strike.

"Now, Royal Knights!" Yugi commanded. "Attack as one!" The three knights stood with their backs facing each other, swords at the ready. Jack started the attack by swinging and dispelling the first of the clones to come near them. This was followed by King and Queen in such rapid succession, that the whole attack pattern looked like a three-way dance.

Finally, Jack's blade connected with a Naruto that didn't disappear, but was knocked back. The rest of the clones disappeared as Naruto hit the ground. He still stood up, but he began to wobble on his feet.

"Now for the finishing blow," Yugi said. "Triple Majestic Slash!" The three knights ran at Naruto with their swords out. As soon as they were right next to him, they swung. The swords passed through him as they did before, but this time, Naruto merely kneeled over in exhaustion.

"I believe this battle is over," Yugi said as he shut off the power to his duel disk. The knights disappeared as he walked over to Naruto.

"Man," Naruto said, "real or not, those things can pack a punch."

"It was more than their power that led to your defeat," Yugi said, "but your own belief that you were better than them simply because you won before. But the past, despite what you may have been taught, does not always repeat itself."

* * *

Kakashi's body disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the smoke lifted, there appeared to be four more Kakshis standing in front of Jinzo. It took Joey a few seconds to process what he was seeing.

"Wait a second," he whispered. "Five of you? So that's how you did it. That wasn't you leading us here. It was another you."

"Sometimes, in order to be an effective teacher…" one of the Kakashis said. "…You have to be willing to give out a few pop quizzes," another finished.

"I get it," Joey said. "Just looking out for your students, huh? Well, now it's my turn to start my own lesson: Victory 101." He drew a card. "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode!" A figure appeared next to Jinzo. It looked like a human covered entirely in black armor with silver highlights. His forearms bore large attachments that looked like a cross between a shield and blade.

"Now, Gearfried," Joey said, "attack with Metal Forearm Thrust!" Gearfried started to run toward the group of Kakashis. Suddenly, one of the clones advanced toward him and jumped onto his chest, forcing him backward. Two more clones joined in and succeeded in knocking Gearfried on his back. Joey became especially worried when he saw that his monster was falling onto the booby-trapped kunai Kakashi had set up. However, there was nothing Joey could do to prevent Gearfried from landing except watch as the impact caused an explosion that engulfed his monster and almost took Jinzo with it.

The explosion cleared and Jinzo was alone on Joey's side. The Kakashi clones had moved back to their comrades before Gearfried fell; all were unharmed. Joey looked at his duel disk; it read 900 life points.

"Crud," Joey said to himself. "The way he's going, I'll lose faster than Kaiba at a popularity contest." All he could do was draw his next card. He looked at the card, then at the rest in his hand. "Actually, this could work out better than I thought." He turned to the field. "I summon two monsters in defense mode: Brigadier and Swordsman of Landstar!" Two small figures appeared on either side of Jinzo; both looked like something drawn by a child. One looked like a woodsman while the other looked like a knight.

The Kakashi's looked at the new additions to the battle. "Don't think me a fool just because they look weak," one said. "Even a new trainee could see that these two may become important players," another continued. "Best to take them out right now before the regrets come later." All five Kakashis charged in.

"Sorry, can't have you doing that," Joey said. "Jinzo, attack!" Jinzo swung his weapon around and threw it in a curve in front of him. The blade connected with all the Kakashis and forced them back.

"You're right, though," Joey said. "I'll need these little guys for my two part plan. First, I'll sacrifice Jinzo and Swordsman of Landstar," the two monsters that were named disappeared, "to summon my best card: Red Eyes Black Dragon!" A new monster, with an appearance that matched its name perfectly, appeared on the field. The Kakashi's all took out some kunai and shuriken and threw them at Red Eyes. However, the dragon knocked them away by covering itself with its wing.

"I did say two part plan, right?" Joey said. "This part of the plan has me use the spell card Red-Eyes Transmigration. With this card, I sacrifice my Red-Eyes _and_ one warrior monster, in this case Brigadier of Landstar," both monsters disappeared, "to ritual summon Lord of the Red!" A new figure appeared on the field that looked like a cross between a human and the dragon that was there just a few seconds ago complete with wings.

"Now I'll play the spell card Pot of Greed," Joey said, "allowing me to draw two cards from my deck." As soon as he took the cards, the Kakashis ran up to Red. "Hold it!" Joey said. Everyone stopped. "Now I play another spell card: Roll of Fate." An impish creature, holding a die, appeared over the field. The creature threw the die as Joey explained. "When that die stops, I draw and discard cards from my deck based on the number." The die stopped tumbling just as Joey finished talking; it landed on two.

As soon as Joey took his cards, he said, "Now I'll be honest, there wasn't much point to that. Still, I did use two spell cards, and when that happens, Lord of the Red automatically destroys all other opponents on the field. Go, Lord of the Red!" Red opened his wings and flew to the group of Kakashis. One of them jumped forward and held out his hand. It started to glow with electricity. Joey could tell he was using another Chidori, but the light from it seemed weaker.

Red brought a clawed hand forward ready to strike. At the same time, Kakashi shoved his hand into Red's. Red stopped flying and concentrated on pushing Kakashi back. Joey looked at the scene in front of him and said, "I hope you're not thinking of trying to hold him back like that. That Chido-thing doesn't look like it did last time."

"True," Kakashi said through a grunt. "With my chakra split evenly among my Shadow Clones, my power is significantly weaker. But let me ask you this: why aren't those same Shadow Clones helping me hold him back?"

Joey suddenly realized the other clones were gone. He didn't need to search very long, though, as they all suddenly charged Red, each with his own Chidori. They struck their attacks into Red's body and the dragon-man roared.

"And that's why," Kakashi said. Suddenly, the clones disappeared, leaving only the real Kakashi standing in front of a severely wounded Red. His Chidori was now much brighter, just as Joey remembered it being earlier. Kakashi wasted no time and thrust the blade into Red's chest. Red stopped moving and fell before disappearing. Joey's life points fell to zero.

Joey turned off his duel disk and walked to Kakashi. He had his hands on his knees and was breathing hard. "Took a lot out of you, huh?" he asked him.

"Let's just say I wish I was you," Kakashi answered. "That way, I would only have to stress my brain figuring out how to fight. Let's face it: I'm just not as young as I once was."

"Hey, you still kicked my butt," Joey replied.

* * *

Ino stood up after being hit by Sparkman's attack. As she did, she clandestinely reached he hand into her pouch and pulled out some kunai. When she finally stood up to her full height, she thrust her hand forward, letting go of the knives in it. Jaden was not prepared for a counterstrike, so he couldn't do anything as the kunai pierced Sparkman's body and destroyed him, leaving Jaden with 1400 life points.

_Sparkman must have taken a lot of hits,_ Jaden thought. _There's no way that a bunch of throwing knives could kill him easily._ Jaden looked at his hand. "I play the spell card Emergency Call! With this, I can add one Elemental Hero from my deck to my hand." He took a card out of his deck. "Now, I summon that hero, Elemental Hero Burstinatrix, in attack mode!" A female clad in red appeared in a burst of flames.

"We'll see how hot you are after this," Ino said. She ran up to Burstinatrix and held her hand out, ready to strike.

"Attack with Flare Storm!" Jaden shouted. Two fireballs appeared in the heroine's hands and she threw them at Ino. Ino was disoriented by the first shot, allowing the second shot to hit her directly. She fell back but got up quickly.

Jaden drew another card. After looking at his hand, a smile came to his face. "Okay, first, I'll play Winged Kuriboh in attack mode." A small puffball-like creature with wings appeared next to Burstinatrix with a playful chirp. "Now, just as a precaution," he continued, "I'll put down two trap cards." Two giant cards appeared behind the monsters.

Ino looked at her opponent's side. _The puffball doesn't look too strong. It's risky, but if this game works like I think it does, one shot will bring that boy down._ She stood up and shifted her hands. "Clone Jutsu!" Like before, several figures resembling Ino appeared beside her.

"Again?" Jaden interjected.

"You're not the only one who takes precautions," the clones said. "Just try to find me before this happens." They all kneeled down and held their hands in an "O" shape. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"

"Not today," Jaden said. "I reveal my Solemn Judgment trap card." One of the giant cards flipped up, revealing the image of an elderly man with a commanding atmosphere. "By sacrificing half of my life points, I can stop one spell from activating." Jaden's points fell to 700, and Ino suddenly felt her hands being forced apart by something like an electric shock; the other Inos also took their hands apart as well.

"Fine," they all said. "If jutsu won't work, we'll do it the old fashioned way." Everyone got up and started running at Kuriboh.

"Wrong again," Jaden said as another card flipped up, showing a hazy image of a man with two spirits. "When my opponent calls an attack, one their monsters switches to my control." One of the Inos bounded ahead, causing everyone else to stop. The clone stopped next to the other two monsters and stared at Ino's side. "With three on my side, you don't stand a chance. Ino clone, attack!" The clone obediently took out a kunai from her pouch and threw it.

But Ino nor her clones made any attempt to move. The kunai flew right at one of them, but disappeared as it touched her.

"What?" Jaden asked. "What happened?"

"Simple," Ino said as the clones around her disappeared, "what you're controlling is little more than an empty shell. It has no real will or life force of its own. And one hit is all it takes to break apart." She ran at Jaden's side and jumped up toward her wayward clone. As she fell, he put her foot forward. She touched the clone's forehead and it vanished instantly. Jaden quickly looked at his life point counter; unfortunately, they fell to zero.

Jaden lowered his head as he shut off his duel disk. He walked up to Ino, who smiled smugly. "Uh," Jaden started, "nice job."

"I know," Ino replied. "But it was a good try on your part."

* * *

Rock grunted as he put his arms under him to support himself. "I'm surprised you're still up," he heard. He looked up as saw Bastion in front of him; he noticed the monsters were behind him. "After your berserker rage and Hydrogeddon's attack, I'm amazed you can even remain conscious."

Rock just smirked. "Willpower," he said. He stood up completely. "I think I should go back to my side of the field," he said. "I trust that you will not attack until I am there?"

"Understood," Bastion replied. Rock turned around and slowly walked past the monsters. _ He must be more tired than he lets on. He's a strange one, I'll say that much. But one who demands a battle of honor can't be all bad._

Rock stopped a distance from Bastion's monsters and, without turning around, kneeled down. He pulled up his pant leg, revealing his ankle weight to Bastion. _What's that doing on his leg? _Bastion thought. Rock undid the strap holding the weight in place and threw it away from him. He then switched legs and took off the other weight. He stood up again and turned around.

"Now you may strike," Rock said.

Bastion took a card from his deck. "I play one facedown card," he said. Another giant card appeared next to the first. "Now, Oxygeddon, attack with Sonic Screech!" Oxygeddon opened its mouth and several shockwaves shot out of it. But before they could hit Rock, he moved out of the way almost impossibly fast.

_Without those weights,_ Bastion thought, _his legs are faster and stronger than those of any normal human. And he says he can't do any sort of ninja tricks? Is this his willpower in action?_

Oxygeddon continued to attack, but no matter where he turned, he missed. Finally, Rock turned toward the monsters and started running in their direction.

With little time to react, Bastion said, "I reveal my trap card, Spirit Barrier!" Rock stopped just before a clear, almost air-like dome appeared between him and the monsters. "This barrier keeps my life points safe; you can destroy my monsters, but you cannot win that way."

Rock looked and saw the flipped card, bearing an image of a warrior trying to attack another warrior. "Then maybe I should do something about that." He ran through the barrier, dodged the creatures' attempts to hit him, and stopped in front of the card. He quickly pulled a kunai from his pouch and brought the blade to the edge of the card. "The power of paper is likely unlimited," Rock said. Suddenly, he slashed the kunai across the card, cutting it in half. "But in the end, it is still no match for that which can cut it."

"Profound indeed," Bastion said. "But while you were focused on eliminating the barrier, I drew another card. And this will prove to be the trump I need to finally take you down."

"Interesting," Rock said. "I would like to hear about this strategy you have in mind."

"I'll do more than that, I'll show you," Bastion returned. "First I summon Magnet Warrior Sigma Plus in attack mode!" A warrior covered with amber-brown armor appeared on the field.

"Now, let me ask you something," Bastion continued. "You study martial arts, correct?" Rock kept a stern face, but nodded. "Have you heard of the Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan? It's a special technique that borrows from the forces of nature. On this field, I have four monsters relating to those forces, as well as the card that will enable me to use them. I reveal my trap card: Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan!" The other giant card flipped up, revealing an image of a samurai warrior in a meditative pose.

"Swift as the wind!" Bastion yelled. Suddenly, a strong gale came out of Oxygeddon's entire body. Rock mentally cursed himself for taking his weights off as he was lifted off the ground. "Silent as the forest river!" Hydrogeddon opened its mouth and a stream of water rushed toward Rock. Rock's body was surrounded in a giant whirlpool that soon sent him upward. "Agile as fire!" Fox Fire started to flare up and, like a comet, jumped up to Rock and collided with him. Rock's body was covered in flames. "And immovable as the mountains of Earth!" Bastion finished. Sigma Plus pointed his palms at the ground. Electricity sparked out of them into the dirt. Suddenly, a large mound of earth shot upward into what looked like a hill and slammed against Rock's burning body.

Everything quieted down as Rock fell to the now flat ground. Bastion shut off his duel disk, knowing the fight had been won. Rock panted hard, possibly even more so than after he used the Reverse Lotus. "Are you alright?" Bastion asked.

"I'll… be… fine…" Rock said between pants.

* * *

Chazz looked at his hand, hoping another monster was in it. He didn't see any, however, so he drew another card. "Just my luck," Chazz said. "But I don't have much of a choice in the matter, so I summon Ojama Green!" The new creature that appeared looked similar to Yellow, except he was green, had one eye, and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

Sasuke sighed and said, "You must really be desperate, hoping that thing will destroy me."

"He's just here so I don't have to throw that match," Chazz replied. ("That's either compliment or an insult," Green muttered.) "Right now, though," he continued, "I'll play one facedown card."

"And I'll end this battle," Sasuke said. He pulled several shuriken out of his pouch and prepared to throw.

"I play the spell card Lightning Vortex!" Chazz shouted. "All I have to do is discard one card from my hand and watch the sparks fly." A small bolt of lightning flashed in the sky and then turned into a beam that landed on top of Sasuke, causing him to drop his shuriken.

_That'll keep him busy for a while,_ Chazz thought. _But did that work because his stars allowed the card's effect to play out normally? Or is it just an actual attack in this dimension. Listen to me, sounding like Jaden and Alexis all of a sudden. But if it is, true…_ He looked at one of the cards in his hand. _Yeah, this just might work out after all._

"I play another card facedown," Chazz announced, "and I'll reveal my first facedown while I'm at it: Level Soul. By removing from play my Armed Dragon Level 7 from my graveyard, I can special summon the next level directly: Armed Dragon Level 10!" Armed Dragon reappeared on the field, looking fiercer than before and with more body armor.

"No matter," Sasuke said. "Even if you could bring it to level 100, I can still take it down."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Chazz said. "I reveal my trap card Ojama Trio!" Three statues, shaped like Ojamas Yellow and Green, plus a black one, appeared around Sasuke. ("Do I really look that ugly?" Green said as he stared at his own copy.)

"This is ridiculous," Sasuke muttered. "But at least you brought the enemy to me." He held up a hand at the yellow Ojama.

"I wouldn't touch those if I were you," Chazz said. "Those Ojama tokens are your allies, so to speak. And if they get destroyed, you take the damage." Sasuke grunted, but brought his hand down. "And keeping those safe may be difficult, because I'm going to activate Armed Dragon's special effect: by sending one card from my hand to my graveyard, I destroy all monsters on my opponent's side." He took one of the cards from his hand and placed it in the graveyard slot. "Now, Armed Dragon, finish this!" Armed Dragon roared and held up a clawed hand; it held a ball of white energy. It threw the ball down at Sasuke's side, causing an explosion. The blast destroyed the tokens, causing Sasuke to scream in pain.

When the blast subsided, Sasuke stumbled for a bit and collapsed. But Chazz could still hear grunts as though he was getting up.

"Um, buddy?" Green said. "I don't think he's done yet."

"I can see that," Chazz responded. "Why don't you handle this?" he said to Green.

"What? Why me?"

"You might as well do something."

Green didn't argue further, instead walking cautiously toward Sasuke. As soon as Ojama was in front of him, Sasuke looked up. Green started acting nervous and simply said, "Uh, hi." Sasuke just groaned and fell again, this time unconscious.

"I didn't even do anything," Green said to Chazz.

"You let him see your face," Chazz replied. "That was enough."

"Why do I bother?" Green asked as Chazz shut off his duel disk.

"So, 'reading too much into it,' huh?" He heard behind him. He turned to find Alexis' smug face staring at him.

"Yeah, well, in my defense," Chazz started, "you didn't really give me enough to work with." Alexis' face shifted to confusion. "Next time, include some examples."

She then flushed with anger. "I did, you arrogant—!"

"Just let it go," Jaden interrupted. He and the others were nearing the battle site. "Let's just focus on other things right now."

"Like sleep," Naruto said. "I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but for once, Sasuke's got the right idea." He pointed to the unconscious Sasuke.

"You are all welcome to stay with us if you'd like," Kakashi offered.

"That would be just fine," Yugi said. "After all, we were just looking for a place to sleep before this whole thing started."

**Now, place your bets everyone: how long will it take to give you all the next chapter? A year? Two? Will it even be single digits?**

**Seriously, though, I will try to update this story when I can. If you're hungry for more, however, look at my other stories. And a new project will be coming tomorrow. Stay tuned.**


End file.
